The Shehnai of Bismillah Khan Important Questions Class 9 Beehive English
Very Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Which family did the barber belong to?
Answer
He belonged to a family of professional musicians.
Question 2. Why did Aurangzeb ban the playing of the pungi?
Answer
Aurangzeb banned the playing of musical instrument pungi because it had a loud, shrill, and unpleasant sound. He prohibited its play in the royal court.
Question 3. How was the pungi revived?
Answer
The pungi was revived after its tonal quality was improved.
Question 4. Why did the pungi become a generic name for “reeded noisemakers”?
Answer
The pungi was made from a reed and it produced noisy, unpleasant sounds. It became a generic name for “reeded noisemakers”.
Question 5. How is a shehnai different from a pungi ?
Answer
A shehnai is a pipe with a natural hollow that is longer and broader than a pungi. It has seven holes on the body of the pipe.
Question 6. How many holes does a Shehnai have on its body?
Answer
It has seven holes in its body.
Question 7. Where was Bismillah Khan born?
Answer
He was born in Dumraon in Bihar.
Question 8. What is Bismillah Khan’s special achievement on 15 August 1947?
Answer
Bismillah Khan became the first Indian to greet the nation with his Shehnai on this day.
Question 9. Which auditorium is named after Bismillah Khan in Tehran?
Answer
The name of the auditorium is Tahar Mosiquee Ustaad Bismillah Khan.
Question 10. Which film was made by Vijay Matt after hearing Fsismillah’s Shehnai?
Answer
Gunj Uthi Shehnai.
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. How was the pungi revived?
Answer
After Aurangzeb had banned the playing of the pungi in the royal residence, a barber who belonged to a family of professional musicians revived it by taking a wider and longer hollow stem and making seven holes in it. The opening and closing of these holes in the improved pungi produced soft and sweet sounds.
Question 2. How did the improved and modified pungi get its new name?
Answer
It is believed that the barber (nai) who improved the pungi, played his improved and modified instrument in the chamber of the emperor {shah). From the combination of the two words shah and nai, the new instrument got is new name shehnai.
Question 3. Where did Bismillah Khan usually sing at the age of five? How was he rewarded and by whom?
Answer
At the age of five, Bismillah Khan usually sang the Bhojpuri ‘chaita a’ in the Bihariji temple in his native town Dumraon in Bihar. At the end of the song, he earned a big laddu weighing 1.25 kg which was given by the local Maharaja as a prize.
Question 4. Where was the shehnai played traditionally? Why?
Answer
The music of the shehnai was melodious and soft. It was made a part of the naubat or or traditional ensemble of nine instruments found at royal courts. Soon, it came to be believed that it was auspicious. Therefore, it came to be played in the holy temples and on the happy auspicious occasions of weddings.
Question 5. How did Bismillah Khan bring the ‘shehnai’ onto the classical stage?
Answer
Traditionally, the shehnai was played in the royal court as one of the nine instruments together known as naubat. Bismillah Khan made it an independent instrument and gave its music a place among other classical instrumental music.
Question 6. How did Bismillah Khan inherit music from his paternal and maternal ancestors?
Answer
Bismillah Khan hailed from a family of musicians in Bihar. His paternal grandfather Rasool Bux Khan was a shehnai player in the royal court of the king of Bhojpur. His father Paigambar Bux and many paternal and maternal uncles were also shehnai vaadaks. In fact, Bismillah Khan was apprenticed with his maternal uncle Ali Bux to learn how to play the shehnai.
Question 7. Who was Ali Bux? Where was he employed and what was his influence on Bismillah Khan?
Answer
Ali Bux was the maternal uncle of Bismillah Khan and may be regarded as his mentor and trainer. He was a great shehnai player and was employed to play the shehnai in the Vishnu temple of Benaras. At a very young age, Bismillah Khan started accompanying him and got lessons in playing the shehnai from him. The young boy would sit for hours listening to his uncle and later practise throughout the day.
Question 8. What significance did the Ganga have in Bismillah Khan’s life?
Answer
The young Bismillah Khan often sat on the banks of the Ganga to practice his music there in solitude. The flowing waters of Ganga inspired him to improvise and invent raagas which were earlier considered beyond the range of the shehnai. In fact, when much later, his student invited him to head a shehnai school in the USA, Khansaab asked him if he would be able to transport River Ganga as well, implying thereby that he could not live without the Ganga.
Question 9. When and how did Bismillah Khan get his big break?
Answer
Bismillah Khan got his big break in 1938. All India Radio opened in Lucknow and Bismillah Khan played shehnai on radio. He soon became an often-heard player on radio. He became the first Indian to greet the nation with his shehnai from the Red Fort on 15 August, 1947.
Question 10. Where did Bismillah Khan go on his first foreign trip? How was he honoured there?
Answer
Bismillah Khan’s first foreign trip took him to Afghanistan where King Zahir Shah was so impressed with the maestro’s shehnai recital that he honoured him with gifts of priceless Persian carpets and other souvenirs.
Question 11. How did the film director Vijay Bhatt honour Bismillah Khan?
Answer
The film director, Vijay Bhatt, once heard the shehnai recital of Bismillah Khan in a festival. He was so fascinated by the performance that he decided to name his next film after the instrument and called it Gunj Uthi Shehnai. The film also had a song that was composed by Bismillah Khan.
Question 12. What advice did Bismillah Khan give Indian youth?
Answer
Bismillah Khan had a great regard for Indian music and the rich heritage of Hindustani music. He wanted that children must not cut off their bond from this grand tradition which was fascinating even for the people of the west. He advised Indians to teach their children music, as it was Hindustan’s richest tradition.
Question 13. What offer did one of Bismillah Khan’s students in the US make to him? Why?
Answer
A student of Bismillah Khan, who himself was settled in the US, wanted that the great maestro should be the head of a shehnai school in the U.S. He promised that he would create the environment of India by erecting the temples like those in Benaras, India.
Question 14. Why did Bismillah Khan refuse to start a shehnai school in the U.S.A.?
Answer
Bismillah Khan was a staunch patriot and was passionately in love with Benaras and Dumraon in India. He intensely loved the Ganga and could not stay away from the sacred river. Therefore, he declined the offer to settle down in the US and head a shehnai school there.
Question 15. Find at least two instances in the text which tell you that Bismillah Khan loves India and Benaras.
Answer
The first instance is when he turned down his student’s offer to start a shehnai school in USA. The second instance is when Khansaab was asked by Shekhar Gupta about moving to Pakistan during the partition, he said that he would never leave Benaras.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Why is Benaras so important to Bismillah Khan?
Answer
Mr Bismillah Khan is fondly called Khansaab. He has travelled all over the world. He got honours in every country. In Tehran, an auditorium was named after him. He has seen many cities, but he remains very fond of Benaras and Dumraon. He calls them the most wonderful towns in the world. He has a special fascination for Benaras because of the Ganga there. In his youth, he used to practice Shehnai in solitude on the banks of the Ganga. Once one of his students in the USA requested him to head a Shehnai school there. He said that he would recreate the atmosphere of Benaras by building similar temples there. But the Ustad asked him whether he would bring the Ganga also there. Once he said, “Whenever I am in Mumbai, I think of only Varanasi and the holy Ganga”.
Question 2. “Music has no religion.” How did Bismillah Khan’s Shehani prove it?
Answer
Music is the voice of the soul. It is sacred beyond the religions. It is eternal and acts as a source of inspiration for everyone. A musician never plays music for any particular religion. Bismillah Khan who belonged to the Muslim community played Shehnai in temples. He was deeply attached to the holy city of Benaras and the holy river Ganga. The river Ganga and its flowing water were the main source of inspiration for him. He could never think of leaving Benaras and holy river Ganga. Since his childhood, he was fond of music. As a five-year-old child, he used to visit Bihariji temple at Dumraon to sing Bhojpuri Chaita. His love for music was so deeply influenced by Benaras and Ganga that once a student from the USA wanted him to head a Shehnai school there. He promised him to recreate the atmosphere of Benaras in the USA by replicating the temple. But Bismillah Khan refused to say that he couldn’t take the Ganga there.
Question 3. How was Bismillah Khan associated with the film world?
Answer
Film director Vijay Bhatt heard Bismillah Khan at a festival. He was so impressed by Bismillah Khan that he named a film after the shehnai – Gunj Uthi Shehnai. The film was a huge hit and one of Bismillah Khan’s compositions Dil ka khilona hai toot gaya turned out to be very popular. In spite of his great success in the film world, Bismillah Khan’s experience in the film world was limited to two films – Vijay Bhatt’s ‘Gunj Uthi Shehnai’ and Vikram Srinivas’s ‘Sanadhi Apanna’. Bismillah Khan, however, made it clear that he could not come to terms with the artificiality and glamour of the film world and returned to Benaras.
Question 4. Write a note on the origin of the Shehnai.
Answer
It is said that in the past a musical instrument called pungi used to be played in palaces before the Kings and Nawabs. But Aurangzeb did not like the shrill and unpleasant sound of the pungi. So he banned the playing of this musical instrument in the royal residence. There was a barber who belonged to a family of musicians.He had access to the royal palace. He tried hard to improve the tonal quality of the instrument: He chose a pipe with a natural hollow stem that was longer and broader than the original pungi. He carved seven holes on the body of the instrument. When he played on it, an impressive sonorous tonal sound was produced. The barber played it before the king and his courtiers. Everybody was impressed. The instrument was called Shehnai because it was born in the Shah’s chamber and was invented by a ‘nai’ (barber). There is another story about the origin of Shehnai. It is said that a doctor of Iran invented it. His name was I laquim Bu All Saina and the instrument was named after him.
Question 5. How does the author of The Sound of Music” portray Bismillah Khan as a great patriot?
Answer
Bismillah Khan, in “The Sound of Music”, emerged as a person imbued with intense and strong patriotic emotions. He had a profound and passionate love for his birthplace, Dumraon in Bihar and for Benaras where he took training to play the shehnai. He feels a deep bond with the Ganga because the flowing waters of the holy river made him improvise and spontaneously play new raagas – the ones which were earlier regarded to be beyond the range of the shehnai. Such was Bismillah Khan’s love for his country and the Ganga that he refused to settle down in America to head a-school for the shehnai. His strong attachment with the sacred river made him miss Banaras when he was in Mumbai or elsewhere. Equally strong was his bonding with his birthplace Dumraon.
Bismillah Khan had great regard for the Hindustani music which, for him, is the richest cultural heritage of India. He wanted the tradition of Indian music to be carried on from generation to generation. That is why he advised the people of India to teach music to their children and felt proud that this music fascinated even the people of the west.