Four gharanas of Hindustani classical music come from Punjab. Patiala, founded under the patronage of the state, produced Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, one of the greatest khayal singers of the twentieth century. Sham Chaurasi, from a village in Hoshiarpur district, produced Salamat Ali Khan and Nazakat Ali Khan. Talwandi and Kapurthala are the other two.
There is also the Punjab gharana of tabla, distinct in its playing and its compositions, with a lineage running through Miyan Qadir Bakhsh of Lahore to Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain.
Most of the musicians in these lineages were Muslim. In 1947 nearly all of them went to Pakistan, including Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, who came back to India in 1957 and took Indian citizenship.
The court patronage that supported them ended at the same time, with the merger of the princely states.
Indian Punjab therefore lost, in one year, both the practitioners and the patrons of its classical music, and it has never rebuilt either. The gharanas named for Punjab towns are now taught mostly in Delhi, Bombay, Lahore and Karachi.
The Patiala gharana was built under the state's patronage and produced a line of khayal singers whose style is known for its ornament and its speed.
Sham Chaurasi in Hoshiarpur district gave its name to a dhrupad and khayal gharana, and the Talwandi gharana is a dhrupad tradition that went to Pakistan in 1947.
The court patronage ended with the states. What kept these traditions going afterward was All India Radio, Radio Pakistan and a small number of families, and several of them did not survive the transition.