the arts Contributions to music A large number of composers who thrived under the lavish patronage of the Nawab rulers of Lucknow enriched the light classical form of thumri; most prominent among these was Wajid Ali Shah. He was not only a munificent patron of music, dance, drama, and poetry but was himself a gifted composer. He had received vocal training under great Ustads like Basit Khan, Pyar Khan and Jafar Khan. Pyar Khan, Jafar Khan and Basit Khan were the direct descendants of Mian Tansen and were the sons of famous Tanseni Chajju Khan. Bahadur Hussain Khan was the descendant of Tansen's son-in-law Naubat Khan, and was one of Wajid Ali Shah's favorite musicians, so much that the Nawab bestowed upon the singer the title Zia-ud-Daulah. Although Wajid Ali Shah's poetic takhallus was "Qaisar", he used the pseudonym "Akhtarpiya" for his musical compositions. Under this name, he wrote over forty works – poems, prose and thumris. The collections Diwan-i-Akhtar and Husn-i-Akhtar contain his ghazals. He is said to have composed many new ragas and named them Jogi, Juhi, Shah-Pasand, etc. The source for much information on music in Nawabi Lucknow comes from the text Ma’danul Moosiqui ('The Mine of Music') of Hakim Mohammed Karam Imam, courtier of Wajid Ali Shah. During his time, complicated ragas like hori and dhrupad were ignored and easier raginis like tilak, pilu, sendura, khammach, bhairvi and jhanjhauti were encouraged. As these were liked by the king and easily understood by all sections of society, they came to be well-loved by commoners. Wajid Ali Shah has been accused of cheapening the classical tradition and promoting lighter forms of music such as ghazals and thumris. But then, as argued by scholars like Ravi Bhatt, this is how popular music has always been criticised. Popular belief has it that the light classical form, thumri was created by Wajid Ali Shah. However, James Kippen argued that evidence suggests that thumri had almost certainly already become an independent vocal form somewhat influenced by khayal by 1800, becoming extremely popular and pervasive in the time of Wajid Ali Shah. Wajid Ali wrote and performed ghazals, and the modern-day style of ghazals was certainly evolved by his innovative ideas and experimentations in ghazals, some of which were noted for their inclusion of obscenities and sexually explicit references to his own private life. Contributions to dance: Kathak Together with music, dance in