Khushhal Khan, who wrote under the pen name Anup, was born into music. He belonged to the Khandari lineage of kalāwants — hereditary musicians who traced their craft to Miyan Tansen himself. But unlike the myth of the illiterate ustād, Anup wrote down nearly everything: two treatises on rāgas and a colossal song collection of almost 2,000 compositions. What follows is his life, not as dry dates, but as a story — year by year, patron by patron, song by song — from his birth in Mughal Delhi to his final breath on the holy hill of Maula Ali in Hyderabad.
Khushhal Khan was born to Karim Khan, a master singer of the Khandari bānī (one of the four original dhrupad styles). The family preserved exclusive compositions from the Mughal court — including works by Tansen, which Anup would later copy into his own songbook. As a child, he would have heard his father and uncles singing dhrupads for the Mughal elite.
After Nadir Shah’s devastating invasion of Delhi (1739) and the resulting collapse of Mughal patronage, Karim Khan decided to leave. The family — Karim, his brothers, and his sons Anup and Raza Khan — migrated to the Deccan, seeking the comparatively stable and generous court of the Nizams of Hyderabad. They arrived sometime before 1791.
Soon after Khushhal Khan Anup, his father Karim Khan, and his brother Raza Khan migrated from Delhi to the Deccan, they sought entry into Hyderabad’s elite circles. Their passport was their music — the exclusive Khandari repertoire they had inherited from the Mughal court, including compositions by Tansen and their own ancestors. The first nobleman to recognise their worth was Rao Ranbha, a powerful Maratha general who served the Nizam.
The exact date of their first meeting is not recorded, but it most likely occurred sometime before 1791 (the year Karim Khan died). The text notes: “The first to take Karim and Anup under his wing seems to have been Rao Ranbha — the man who was also probably Mahlaqa’s first patron.” The encounter would have been a formal majlis (assembly) where Anup and his father demonstrated their art — singing dhrupads and khayāls in the pure Khandari style. Impressed, Rao Ranbha immediately engaged them as his court musicians.
Anup was introduced to the young Chanda Bibi (then in her late teens) through Rao Ranbha’s circle. He became her ustād, training her in the Khandari lineage: singing, composing khayāls, tappas, horīs, and setting her Urdu ghazals to rāgas. Their artistic partnership would last for over three decades.
This patronage was transformative. Rao Ranbha not only provided financial security but also introduced Anup to the circle of Mahlaqa Bai Chanda (then a young courtesan-in-training), whom Anup would later train as his disciple. The relationship culminated around 1800 when Rao Ranbha commissioned Anup’s first major literary work: the Rāg Darshan in Brajbhasha verse, illustrated with paintings that depicted Rao Ranbha, Anup, and Mahlaqa together in intimate musical settings. Rao Ranbha died sometime after 1804, but Anup continued to honour him in songs as late as 1826.
Karim Khan died, and Anup inherited the full Khandari repertoire. He was now the family’s representative to the nobility. His first major patron was Rao Ranbha, a Maratha general who served the Nizam and also patronised the young courtesan Chanda Bibi.
Anup translated Chapter V of the Tuhfat al-Hind into Brajbhasha verse, creating a rāgamālā treatise with 36 paintings. The paintings, added in 1804 by Haji Mir Ghulam Hasan, depict Mahlaqa as the rāginī Khambhavati — a beautiful lady surrounded by dancing courtesans. The work was a gift to Rao Ranbha, who was Mahlaqa’s first major patron.
At the Persian New Year celebration, Mahlaqa performed before Nizam Ali Khan (the second Nizam). Her singing and dancing were so stunning that the Nizam granted her the formal court title Mahlaqa Bai. Anup accompanied her on the tambūra — a rare honour for an ustād. The same year, Anup composed a horī in Rāga Kafi for the Nizam’s Holi celebrations.
The old patrons died. Anup and Mahlaqa smoothly transferred their loyalty to the new Nizam, Sikandar Jah, and to the prime minister Mir Alam. Mir Alam, a Shia aristocrat, was also Mahlaqa’s lover and had been her Persian teacher in her youth.
At Mir Alam’s request (and Mahlaqa’s suggestion), Anup retranslated his Brajbhasha verses into Persian prose for the Nizam. He famously wrote: “I put it back into Persian again, dressing the newly wedded bride of the Hindi language in Persian clothing.” Later that year, Mir Alam died suddenly.
Power shifted to Maharaja Chandu Lal, a brilliant khatri finance minister and poet (takhallus ‘Shaida’). He was pro-British and loved lavish musical assemblies. Anup and Mahlaqa became his star performers. Chandu Lal built a special pavilion to host their concerts for British guests like John Malcolm.
Anup created his most personal version of the treatise: a bilingual manuscript with Brajbhasha verses and a new Persian translation side by side — a study manual for Mahlaqa to master both the lyrics and the theory. In it, he erased all references to Rao Ranbha and Mir Alam, replacing them with praise of Chandu Lal (“Maharaja Ocean of Gifts”).
The “Moon of Hyderabad” died. She was buried at the foot of Maula Ali hill, the Shia shrine they both had patronised. Anup, now about 70, moved into her mansion at Nampally, continuing to train her female protégés. He would outlive her by a decade.
Anup began dating his compositions in the margins of his great song collection. The earliest dated song is 1826 — a khayāl in Rāginī Khamaj (f. 124v) that remembers Rao Ranbha and invokes Mahlaqa as “Chanda.”
In 1828 (f. 86v) and 1829 (f. 81r), Anup wrote jashns for ‘Id-i Ghadir and the birth of Hazrat Ali, performed at the Maula Ali shrine. These were annual commissions, but now he recorded the exact Islamic years.
After decades of collecting and composing, Anup finished the main body of his masterwork: nearly 2,000 songs organised by time of day (day rāgas vs. night rāgas), season (spring, monsoon), and genre (dhrupad, khayāl, tappa, horī, jashn). It included works by Tansen, Surdas, Sadarang, and his own ancestors, plus dozens of his own compositions.
Anup composed a kabit in Rāga Hindol for the spring wedding of Chandu Lal’s grandson, the son of Raja Bala Pershad (f. 28v). It is one of his last occasion pieces for his long-time patron.
On the same day, Anup wrote a horī in Rāga Megh that blended Holi colours with Shia devotion — a remarkable syncretic piece (f. 123v margin). He was now about 80 years old.
Anup’s last known composition is dated 13th Rajab 1252 AH (October 1836) — a jashn-i haidari in Rāga Bhairavi for the birth of Hazrat Ali. The handwriting is shaky, but the poetry is clear: an old man offering his last voice to the shrine he loved.
Khushhal Khan Anup died shortly after writing that final song. He was buried at the foot of Maula Ali hill, near the grave of Mahlaqa Bai. His endowments to the dargāh — including land and money — suggest he died a wealthy man. But his real legacy was the thousands of songs he wrote and preserved, a lifeline to the Mughal music that might otherwise have been lost.
All dates, events, and song translations are drawn from this work and the manuscripts Rāg Darshan (LJS 63, UPenn) and Rāg-Rāginī Roz o Shab (Salar Jung Museum, Urdu Mus 2).