Who Are The Indian Artists Behind The Dalai Lama’s Grammy-Winning Album? Meet Amjad Ali Khan And Sons

For decades, the voice of Dalai Lama has travelled across continents, languages and belief systems, carrying messages of compassion, coexistence and inner calm. This year, that familiar, meditative cadence travelled somewhere entirely unexpected — to the Grammy Awards stage. At 90, the Tibetan spiritual leader won his first Grammy for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording for Meditations: The Reflections of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Quietly, almost discreetly, India’s classical music heritage stood at the heart of that global moment. Behind the serene spoken-word album lies the work of one of India’s most revered musical families — sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and his sons Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash. Two

days ago, Khan became the only Indian musician to be associated with a Grammy-winning project this year, sharing the honour with his sons as featured composers and musicians. The win may have been announced in Los Angeles, but its roots stretch deep into India’s classical past.

A Grammy Win Anchored in Stillness

Meditations: The Reflections of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is not an album in the conventional sense. There are no hooks, no crescendos chasing applause. Instead, the Dalai Lama’s reflections — on compassion, oneness, harmony and global responsibility — form the spine of the recording. The music exists to serve the words, not the other way around. Produced by Kabir Sehgal, known for his work across jazz, classical and world music, the project brings together spoken philosophy and understated soundscapes. The sarod does not interrupt the voice; it listens to it. Each phrase is followed, not led, allowing silence and resonance to do as much work as melody.

The Sarod as a Spiritual Companion

The choice of the sarod is neither incidental nor ornamental. The Bangash family represents the Senia Bangash gharana, a lineage that traces its musical ancestry back six generations to Gwalior. Their forebears are credited with shaping the Afghan rabab into what we now recognise as the sarod — a fretless instrument capable of deep introspection. On this album, that fretlessness becomes crucial. The technique of meend — the ability to glide seamlessly between notes — mirrors the natural rise and fall of the Dalai Lama’s voice. The sarod does not mark time rigidly; it breathes. It responds to pauses, emphasises reflection and allows thought to linger. In many ways, the instrument behaves less like accompaniment and more like an attentive listener.

A Family Legacy, Reimagined

For Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, seventh-generation custodians of this tradition, Meditations represents more than a prestigious credit. The brothers have long walked the delicate line between preservation and reinvention. Trained rigorously in classical raag structures, they are also known for pushing Indian classical music into contemporary spaces — from global concert halls to cross-genre collaborations. This project demanded a different discipline altogether. Writing for a modern audiobook meant resisting virtuosity. The raags had to be distilled, softened and stretched to accommodate spoken philosophy. It is classical music stripped of display, designed instead to create emotional continuity across chapters.

A Global Ensemble of Voices

While the Bangash family provides the musical foundation, Meditations is also a quietly international collaboration. Artists such as Rufus Wainwright and Andra Day contribute to the project, underscoring its global reach. Wainwright accepted the Grammy on behalf of the Dalai Lama at the Los Angeles ceremony, describing the work as an exploration of where art and spiritual thought intersect. That intersection is deliberate. The album is designed not for passive listening but for reflection — a soundtrack for stillness in an increasingly restless world.

Music as Diplomacy and Devotion

For Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, using music as a bridge between cultures is not new. His career has often intersected with diplomacy and humanitarian causes, including a performance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2014. Speaking after the Grammy win, Khan described the collaboration as a deeply personal priority for his family — an offering rather than a project. The intention, he noted, was simple: to amplify the Dalai Lama’s message of peace, love and compassion through a musical language that has always valued introspection over spectacle.

In an era dominated by algorithm-driven hits and viral sounds, Meditations winning a Grammy feels almost radical. There is no marketing blitz, no chart ambition. And yet, it resonates — perhaps precisely because it asks listeners to slow down. For India, the moment is quietly significant. It places Indian classical music, in its purest and most restrained form, at the centre of a global cultural conversation. Not as background exotica, but as an essential emotional architecture. The Dalai Lama’s first Grammy may be about reflection and inner peace, but behind it stands a lineage that understands patience, continuity and depth. In a loud world, the Bangash family chose to listen — and in doing so, helped create one of the year’s most quietly powerful recordings.