Rajya Sabha pays rich tribute to Bismillah Khan

New Delhi, Aug 21: The Rajya Sabha today paid rich tributes to legendary Shehnai player Ustad Bismillah Khan, who passed away early this morning, highlighting the global appeal of his art and decribing him as ''a symbol of the country's secular ethos and Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb''.

''We have lost a towering personality,'' Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat read out to a sombre House as it assembled for the day.

The Elders expressed their deep condolences to the bereaved family.

They stood in two-minute silence to pay homage to the maestro, whose death they described as an ''irreparable loss the world of instrumental music''.

The Chairman, reading out a message, said the Ustad was born and brought up in Varanasi and learnt the art of Shehnai on the banks of the Ganga. He took to the instrument under the inspiration of his uncle who used to play shehnai in the Vishwanath temple.

''Ustad Khan enthralled audience all over the globe. He was a highly respected figure in the world of music and upheld the country's secular ethos and the values of the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb'' He said he was the third person to be honoured with the country's highest honour Bharat Ratna, in 2001, after MS Subbulaxmi and Pt Ravi Shankar.

UNI

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