Bismillah Khan/ 1916 - 2006

On the fifth and eighth day of every Muharram, Ustad Bismillah Khan would come to the Fat-main burial ground, sit under a neem tree and play the shehnai.

“Even the average onlooker who did not understand music would be moved to tears,” a local resident said.

The open space under the neem tree where Bismillah Khan mourned the grandsons of the Prophet became his final resting place on Monday.

Varanasi, the city where the legend had lived most of his ninety years and which had answered his call for peace and unity after the temple blasts, was out in full strength to bid him goodbye.

Thousands marched with the funeral cortege of the man who had played the shehnai when the Indian flag was unfurled at Red Fort to mark India’s independence in 1947.

Others watched from houses, shops and even treetops on the 2-km route from Benia Bagh, where the last namaz was said, to the graveyard.

A flower was traced on the ground in white before the grave was dug. As the body was lowered, army jawans fired the 21-gun salute to the man the Prime Minister described as “a true symbol of our composite culture”.

“Khan Sahib, through his mellifluous rendering of the shehnai, showed us that while God may manifest himself in many forms, piety finds its true expression through music,” Manmohan Singh said. “Ustad Bismillah Khan Sahib was a great son of India.”

A devout Muslim, Bismillah Khan was a devotee of Saraswati and played the shehnai — an instrument that he took out of marriage halls to heights of glory — at the temple every day.

Travelling around the globe for performances, the maestro who had come to Varanasi when he was six to train under his uncle Ali Bux Vilayatu, attached to the Vishwanath temple, refused to be lured by offers to move out. Promised a replica of Varanasi in America, he had said: “You will not be able to bring my Ganga here.”

On March 21, he did not celebrate his 90th birthday because of the temple blasts earlier this year.

In hospital since August 17 with failing health, he did not want to be taken out of the city for treatment. “When I left the hospital last night he said he was happy to be in Varanasi,” said Mehtab Hussain, the eldest of his five sons.

The end came at 2.20 am at Heritage Hospital, after a heart attack. At 5.30 pm, draped in the national Tricolour, he made his last journey as national mourning was announced.

“His spirit will continue to live on in the city of Varanasi,” flute maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia said.

Goutam Ghose, who had made a documentary on the man who till the end went around Varanasi on cycle-rickshaw, said: “He was undoubtedly one of the greatest composers, players and visionaries, but unfortunately few people realised that because he was also so humble. I got to really know him while making the NFDC documentary Meeting a Milestone, and for me it really was that.

“So many memories keep coming back… Once I remember he said that the world today had grown too out of tune and for that all the politicians must sit for a test before a panel of all the greatest musicians of the world. The President of India should know at least three ragas and some taals. The Prime Minister should know two ragas and a few taals and so on, but every single politician had to know one raga.

“Because music can never lie, the sa, re, ga and other notes cannot lie, so they too would not be able to lie and the world would be a better place!”

Bismillah Khan is survived by five sons, three daughters and a large number of grandchildren and great grandchildren. His wife died in 1980.

The maestro’s last concert was in Jaipur, on June 14. “He played for 10 minutes before he said he was not feeling well,” sobbed Naiyar, his second son who is seen as his successor.

Ever since he returned to Varanasi, Bismillah Khan had been bedridden. But he had not stopped playing the shehnai even on his hospital bed. When a nurse was massaging his forehead, he chided her, “How out of tune your fingers are. This is not the way a shehnai is played,” before breaking into a laugh.

But his last wish remained unfulfilled. Till last night, he had longed to play at India Gate, son Mehtab said.

“By the grace of God, when this (shehnai) is in my hands, all the wealth of the world could be brought to me, and I’d say: Get about your business, take it away,” Bismillah Khan said in an interview last year.

The shehnai fell silent on Monday.