By Daniel Lak in Gwalior

Deep in the heart of India, in the medieval city of Gwalior, is a unique museum inspired by an ancient tradition.

It is the ancestral home of one of India's leading musical families, descendants of wandering musicians from Afghanistan.

Here one of India's greatest living musicians, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, and his two sons are keeping alive a powerful musical tradition.

The museum is called sarod ghar. "Ghar" is house in Hindi and a "sarod" is a six stringed musical instrument, perhaps the most melodic in north Indian or Hindustani classical music.

"I saw the Beethoven museum at his house in Germany. I was there with my wife and we were very impressed," says Amjad Ali Khan.

"I tried to think if we had anything similar in India and we didn't. So we started this sarod ghar," he added.

Father to son

Amjad and his two sons, Ameen and Ayaan are the sixth and seventh generations of respected classical musicians to come from their family.

Indian classical music demands an almost religious devotion to the teacher, and that's no easier, says Amjad, when you're related to your pupils.

"Father to son, it's handed down. I didn't force them and I'm happy they have taken to music," he said.

"But it is not simple being father and teacher at the same time," he added.

At an annual awards ceremony in Gwalior, in the name of the great maestro's father, a rare award is given to a foreign national.

Dr Neil Saurav, of York University in Britain, has been teaching and playing Indian classical music for more than 30 years.

"When I started it was at the tail end of the infamous 60s. Indian music was popular then for all the wrong reasons and everyone said it would die out," Dr Saurav said.

"It did. But now people are very serious about learning how to play Indian music and my course is a very popular class," he said.

Classical tradition

Listening to the soaring vocals of singer Shubha Mudgal at the awards ceremony, you understood how it takes decades to learn the raags, the often improvised runs of notes, and the set rhythms or taals that make Indian classical music unique.

Amjad Ali Khan admitted that the demands of time and discipline of such music are very much at odds with the breathless pace of modern life.

"Nowadays, people are looking for shortcuts to everything, but if you want purity of notes, if you want discipline and beauty and are prepared to surrender to God, then there is only Indian classical music," he said.

"People who aren't prepared to give everything to God and to the music should not learn this art," Amjad Ali Khan said.

In concert, Amjad and his sons grin and encourage each other to greater and greater heights of virtuosity - a far cry from the often solemn onstage presence of other Indian musicians.

This family is living proof that things can change yet maintain the traditions of the past.

The two boys are committed to their family museum as much as their father, and they plan to keep playing together for as long as they can.