Founded by Haji Vilayat Ali Khan, son-in-law of Lucknow's Bakhshu Khan — tradition holds that compositions came with the marriage. From that inheritance the school built a repertoire of unusual breadth: gats, gat-kaidas, relas, and parans of striking invention, played with an open yet detailed baaj.
Farrukhabad players are prized as complete artists — soloists and accompanists both — and celebrated twentieth-century masters including Ahmed Jan Thirakwa and Amir Hussain Khan carried its material. Much of what modern audiences consider the classic tabla solo is Farrukhabad architecture.