Rais Khan

Rais Khan is a singer and musician from Dantal village located in the Pokhran Tehsil of Jaisalmer. He hasn’t had the most conventional path toward learning music as an art form akin to other people in the Manganiyar community. He began to learn the traditional Rajasthani dance known as Patwawali when he was about 8 years old. This dance was taught to him by his paternal uncle, Jazman Khan.

The unfortunate demise of Rais Khan’s father when Rais was just about a month and a half old had already put him in a tricky situation right from the beginning of life. Eventually, during his childhood years, he moved to his paternal uncle’s place and began to explore the art form that is so close to his heart. He then moved on to learn and polish his vocal ability as well as musical skills through Harmonium when he turned eighteen.

About five years back, Rais Khan started his musical group in Jaisalmer along with Shaukat Khan and Muqaddar Khan. Since then he has had opportunities to perform in almost every state within the country as well as two foreign tours to the United States. Besides the traditional Rajasthani folk melodies, Rais has also understood and mastered various ragas such as Mada, Bhairavi and Kalyan.

With a humble attitude towards every performance and event, Rais Khan appreciates all the opportunities he gets. He wishes to make a substantial contribution to the Manganiyar community of Jaisalmer through his performances and aims towards more performances across the globe in order to promote this folk art form.   

• Jaisalmer
• Rajasthan