The Dagar Vani
There are four known schools or styles of Dhrupad namely:
the Nauhar Vani, the Gauhar Vani, the Khandar Vani and the Dagar Vani.
Musical research says that the Dagar Gharana has been existing for nearly five hundred years.
The continuity and contribution of the twenty generations, from the time of Swami Haridas Dagur, bears testimony to the excellence of the Dhrupad style of singing and of playing the Rudra Veena.
The late Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and his brother Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar belong to the illustrious family of Dhrupad musicians who has been transmitting this ancient and fine art from generation to generation. Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar have been taught vocal and instrumental (Rudra Veena) Dhrupad by their father Ustad Ziauddin Khan Dagar who was a most famous and respected musician, a singer as well as a Rudra Veena player (a Beenkar) at the court of the Maharaja of Udaipur.
Ustad Ziauddin Dagar was a master of Layakari (playing with the Lay -tempo- inside of a Tâl - rhythmic cycle – of a composition or in the Alap).
Ustad Zia Mohiuddin brought modifications to his Veena to make it possible to render the subtleties of the Dhrupad genre; he was a master of shrutis or micro tones.
Ustad Zia Fariuddin is a great vocalist mastering the art of shrutis, he also expresses the deep Ras (essence or mood) of the Râga in an intense and beautiful way. He is the Director of the Dhrupad Centre at IIT, Mumbai.
 
Five brothers and cousins of the Dhrupad family are still representing the Dhrupad musical genre nowadays: the eldest one Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar in Delhi, Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar in Mumbai, Ustad Hussein Saiduddin Dagar in Pune, Ustad Mohi Bahauddin Dagar, the only Rudra Veena player of the family, son of the late Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, living in Mumbai and Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar son of the late Ustad Nasir Fayyazuddin Dagar, living in Delhi