sarangi. At about ten years of age, Narayan learned the basics of dhrupad, the oldest genre of Hindustani classical music, by studying and imitating the practice of sarangi player Uday Lal of Udaipur, a student of dhrupad singers Allabande and Zakiruddin Dagar. After Uday Lal died of old age, Narayan met travelling singer Madhav Prasad, originally of Lucknow, who had performed at the court of Maihar. With Prasad, Narayan enacted the ganda bandhan, a traditional ceremony of acceptance between a teacher and his pupil, in which Narayan swore obedience in exchange for being maintained by Prasad. He served Prasad and was taught in khyal, the predominant genre of Hindustani classical music, but returned to Udaipur after four years to teach music school. Prasad later visited Narayan and convinced him to resign his position and dedicate his time to improvement as a musician, although the idea of giving up a steady life was not well received by Narayan's family. He stayed with Prasad and travelled to several Indian states until Prasad fell ill and advised him to learn from singer Abdul Wahid Khan in Lahore. Following Prasad's death in Lucknow, Narayan enacted the ganda bandhan with another teacher who gave him lessons, but soon left for Lahore and never performed the ritual again. Career Narayan travelled to Lahore in 1943 and auditioned for the local All India Radio (AIR) station as a singer, but the station's music producer, Jivan Lal Mattoo, noticed grooves in Narayan's fingernails: sarangis are played by pressing the fingernails sideways against three playing strings, which strains the nails. Mattoo instead employed Narayan as a sarangi player. Traditionally, the sarangi is supposed to play after the singer and imitate the vocal performance, and play in the space between phrases. Mattoo advised Narayan and helped him contact khyal singer Abdul Wahid Khan, a rigorous teacher under whom Narayan learned four ragas through singing lessons. Narayan was allowed sporadic solo performances on AIR and began to consider a solo career. After the partition of India in 1947, Narayan moved to Delhi and played at the local AIR station. His work for popular singers increased his repertoire and knowledge of styles. Narayan played with the classical singers Omkarnath Thakur, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Hirabai Badodekar, and Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, and he accompanied singer Amir Khan in 1948, when Khan sang for the first time at AIR Delhi following the partition. As