Ustad Alauddin Khan's biography by his great-granddaughter, the eminent musicologist Sahana Gupta Khan, shows among other things how so many eminent musicians including his son the sarod nawaz Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, sitar wizard Ravi Shanker, flautist Panna Lal Ghosh and violinist V.G. Jog, not to speak of his illustrious daughter Annapurna Devi, have benefited from the virtuosity of the ustad (master).

That all of them had their individual styles has not been the case with the pupils of most other mentors. Says the author, 'He helped students develop their own style and encouraged them to imbue music with their own feelings, which is why the same phrase played by Dada (Ustad Ali Akbar Khan) and Pandit Ravi Shankar would sound different.'

In his formative years the ustad did not seek knowledge from only one or two sources; he went to different mentors to learn what they excelled in. Some were more than willing, others not so but all of them marvelled at the speed at which he grasped the nuances of their styles, as indeed they were amazed to see his command over many musical instruments. This ability of his helped him to develop the concept of orchestration in the music of the subcontinent.

Once, during his youth, when he ran out of money he went to Girish Ghosh, the owner-director of Minerva Theatre. Ghosh was so impressed by the multi-faceted talents of Alauddin Khan that he entrusted him with complete responsibility for the musical parts of the play. That he was the sole Muslim in the theatre group did not prove to be disadvantageous in any way.

The leading exponent of the Maihar gharana (school), Alauddin Khan lived to the age of 110 and won many coveted awards, at home and abroad. His music still lives, not just in his recordings, but also in the music of his shagirds (students). Not all of them are alive today, but their own students are now playing music with aplomb and winning accolades in concerts around the world.

The book, profusely illustrated, has some interesting anecdotes. One of them is the story about Siraju, one of the ustad's ancestors, who was a member of a gang of robbers. He became a Muslim to hide his identity from the police. His descendants were all Muslims, and that included Alauddin Khan who went for Hajj, but strangely his great granddaughter, the book's author, has referred to Makkah as Baitul Muqqadas, which, as most of us know, is the honourific title of Jerusalem.

The second book under review has also been published by Roli Books. It is on one of the greatest exponents of ghazals rendered in semi-classical style, Begum Akhtar (earlier known as Akhtari Bai Faizabadi). She also excelled in singing light classical numbers such as thumri, dadra and kajri and did what no one before her even thought of - garnishing these numbers with appropriate couplets from Urdu poetry, thus making her renditions exciting for devotees of ghazals and light classical music alike.

S. Kalidas, who has authored this lovely coffee table book, is a well-known writer on both fine arts and performing arts. Way back in the mid-1990s he made a well-received documentary on the legendary singer and has been gracious enough to acknowledge untiring help from different sources such as Salim Kidwai, who was present at many of the Begum's concerts, and Shanti Hiranand, the most well-known pupil of the great vocalist.

We learn from the book that the singer, who was admired by one and all including Sarojini Naidu, had a twin sibling who died in childhood. We also learn that the Nawab of Rampur offered to enter into mutah (temporary marriage) with her but was met with a rebuff.

Not many people know that Begum Akhtar sang Bengali ditties with ease even though she was from the U.P. The writer also alludes to her affair with Ustad Amir Khan, an episode in her life hardly known otherwise.

Her marriage to Barrister Ishtiaq Ahmed Abbasi of Lucknow changed her life pattern completely. She had to stop singing in concerts and doing radio programmes. To say that she felt suffocated after some time is to state the obvious; which is why her husband allowed her to perform publicly.

As one who treasures the moment of listening to her in a concert at HMV in Karachi, this reviewer recalls the way she swept her admirers off their feet. Sitting in the front row was Faiz, whose ghazals she had started singing only a few days earlier. Faiz got much of her attention.

Back to the book, it comes with a digitally mastered CD containing some of her most memorable numbers. That alone should make the book a very good buy.

Boro Baba...Ustad Alauddin Khan
By Sahana Gupta Khan
Roli Books, New Delhi
128pp. Rs990

Begum Akhtar Love's own voice
By S. Kalidas
Roli Books, New Delhi
84pp. Rs990