Kishan Maharaj

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Kishan Maharaj an outstanding Tabla player of India.

He was born in the year 1923 in a a family of professional musicians. He was initially trained in classical music by Pandit Hari Maharaj, his father for many years. After his fathers death, his training was taken over by his uncle, Pt. Kanthe Maharaj one of the great old masters and himself a disciple of Pt. Baldeo Sahai.

By the time he was eleven, he started performing in several concerts. Within a few years, Kishan Maharaj was sharing the same stage with stalwarts like Ustad Faiyaz Khan, Pandit Omkarnath Thakur, Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Ravi Shankar, and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan besides many others.

Pandit Kishan Maharaj has the ability to play cross-rhythmsand produce complex calculations, particularly in tihai patterns.

Known for being an excellent accompanist, Pandit Kishan Maharaj is extremely versatile and is capable of playing with any accompaniment, be it with the Sitar, Sarod, Dhrupad, Dhamar or even dance!

Pandit Kishan has given a number of solo concerts during his career and also given `Sangat` to some great dancers like Sri Shambhu Maharaj, Sitara Devi, Natraj Gopi Krishna and Pandit Birju Maharaj.

Among all his compositions, his `Tala Vadya Kacheri` with the Mridangam Vidwan, `Palghat Raghu` is incomparable. Pandit Kishan Ji has extensively toured abroad and has participated in several prestigious events including the Edinburgh festival and Commonwealth Arts festival in UK in 1965.

Pandit Kishan Maharaj's disciples include some of the top Tabla players of today, including Pt. Kumar Bose, Pt. Balkrishna Iyer, Sandeep Das, Sukhwinder Singh Namdhari and others.

He has received a number of awards and honours including the `Padamshree` in 1973, `The Kendriya Sangeet Natak Award` in 1984 and `The Hafiz Ali Khan Award` in 1986 besides many others.

He was awarded Padma Vibhushan award in 2002.