NEW DELHI, July 14: The legendary exponent of the shehnai, musician Bismillah Khan, a recipient of the highest Indian civilian award, received a life-saving respite on Monday when a provincial government offered to pay for his medical treatment.

The government of Punjab state offered 500,000 rupees to the 87-year-old Khan who in his illustrious life has played the shehnai in almost all capitals of the world.

The frail Khan, who recently became the third Indian musician to be honoured with the Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India) award, has been reduced to penury and urgently needed funds for his medical treatment.

Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh came to the rescue of the maestro and said his government would set up a corpus to help artistes of Khan’s stature who have fallen on bad times, the Press Trust of India said.

The musician last month appealed for help to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee from his one-room apartment in Benaras but the national government failed to react.

Khan made his mark when he played the lilting shehnai at the national function on the eve of India’s first Republic Day ceremony in 1951 and since then has won every possible domestic award linked to music.

He has played in Afghanistan, Europe, Iran, Iraq, Canada, various west African countries, the United States, Russia, Japan, Hong Kong and almost every capital city across the world in a career spanning almost seven decades.—AFP