Ustad Mohammad Wazir Khan was the Rampur court's chief musician — a rudra veena (been) player and dhrupad exponent descended from Naubat Khan, son-in-law of the legendary 16th-century court musician Tansen — who headed Rampur's Arbab-e-Nishat music department under Nawab Hamid Ali Khan. Around 1905–1910 he accepted the young Allauddin Khan as a disciple outside his own family, opening the centuries-old Senia gharana's rudra veena and dhrupad vocabulary to him; he was also a noted poet, painter, photographer and calligrapher.