Keramatullah Khan -along with his younger brother Asadullah Khan– was the most famous sarod performer and one of the most knowledgable musicians of his era. He and his brother were extensively taught on -the then novel instument- sarod by their father Niyamtaullah Khan. Besides his main occupation as a performing artist Keramatullah was an enigmatic teacher, poet and writer. In 1908 his book titled “Secret of Miracles or Blessed Melodies” (Isrār-i karāmat urf naghmāt-i na’mat) was published. He and his brother Asadullah Khan were invited to perform at the Wembley exhibition in England as well as the Paris world-fair in 1900. Keramatullah lived in Allahabad and Calcutta. During his last years he settled in Lucknow where youthful aspirants Umar Khan and Ilyas Khan tied the thread of discipleship with him and learned until his demise. Besides them Keramatullah Khan had several disciples namely – Sakhawat Hussain Khan, Shafiqullah and Rafiqullah Khan, Dhirendra Nath Bose, Harendra Krishna Sil, Jagatprasanna Mukherjee (Gobardanga), Baran Seel, Kali Das Pal, Nuni Gopal (sitar), Kalicharan Ray, Kalyani Ray, Kshitish Chandra Lahiri, Maharaja Jogendra Nath Ray (Natore), Shyam Kumar Ganguli, K.C. Dey, Harendra Nath Chatterjee, Taru Bose, Motilal Banaras-wale and Lakshman Das Munim aka Munimji (harmonium player from Benares and author of the 1924 book „Sangit -Samuccaya“). Even though many of his contemporaries and even his younger brother recorded their music on 78RPM discs there is no recording of him as he was opposed to the new technology and feared his music might be played at low-down places.

More about the man and his time in part III of Markus Schlaffkes beautiful documentary „Soundtracks“: