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Khyal (literally 'fantasy') is the principal genre of North Indian vocal art music. The style developed at the Mughal court in Delhi and at neighbouring provincial courts during the 18th and 19th centuries AD. Initially an elegant, cultured and essentially secular entertainment for the nobility, in the post-Independence era it has continued to flourish in much changed circumstances, as a vehicle for the Indian art of music, rightly seen as one of the highest achievements of Indian culture. The object in performance is to evoke a specific musical emotion: through the rag, a highly complex melodic structure providing the basis for a complete performance; through the composition, a short song with text in literary Hindi or Urdu which serves as the starting point for the performance; through melodic and rhythmic improvisation of ever-increasing complexity which comprises the majority of the performance; and through the subtle modulation of the pitch and timbre of the voice, which is regarded as the most expressive and versatile of musical instruments. Khyal is an abstract art form, linked neither to religious ritual nor to dramatic performance: although the text of a composition may evoke religious devotion, directed to any Hindu or Muslim deity or saint, it may also be purely secular.

The basic features of khyal - the repertory of rags, the tals, or metrical structures, the shape of the composition, the principles of improvisation - are shared with other vocal and instrumental styles, and ultimately sanctioned by the principles of Indian music theory. Many features of khyal were taken from the older dhrupad style of Hindu sacred art music; the distinctive khyal features are the profusion of vocal ornaments and arabesques and the greater structural freedom. When the majority of court musicians converted to Islam, the religion of the Mughal emperors, in the 17th and 18th centuries, dhrupad lost for them some of its religious importance, and khyal became the focus of their creative efforts. This process is associated especially with Nyamat Khan Sadarang, chief court musician to the Mughal emperor Mohammed Shah Rangile in the early 18th century. With the collapse of the Mughal empire in the early 19th century, court musicians took employment at other centres such as Gwalior, Agra, Jaipur and Rampur, at each of which a particular family tradition (gharana), with its own repertory and style, grew up. One British observer of 1834 described the music he heard in terms that still hold good today:

In the kheal the subject generally is a love tale, and the person supposed to utter it, a female. The style is extremely graceful, and replete with studied elegance and embellishments … To a person who understands the language sufficiently, it is enough to hear a few good khyeals, to be convinced of the beauties of Hindoostanee songs, both with regard to the pathos of the poetry and the delicacy of the melody.

Although few of today's musicians can remember employment in the royal court, many trace their musical heritage to court musicians of the 19th century and earlier, and most look back to that period as a golden age. Daniel Neumann described how musicians were provided with their own quarters where they lived with their families: Every evening they had to be present, whether or not music was to be performed … musicians arrived after the Nawab of Rampur had finished dinner - about 9 o'clock - and stayed until twelve, playing for him and his friends. Court musicians were paid a monthly salary … along with gifts of money on ceremonial occasions. Members of the nobility - at least those who are now musicians - claim that musicians were treated with great respect.

At the court of Jaipur, both classical and folk musicians were incorporated into the court bureaucracy - so much so that at the Lucknow court of Wajid Ali Shah, jealous contemporaries complained that 'a coterie of musicians practically ran the state'. In the present century musicians have been obliged to leave the courts for the insecurity but perhaps greater fame of the public concert circuit, radio broadcasts and recording sessions.

A typical khyal performance begins with a short composition, the first phrase of which, the mukhra, serves as a refrain to which the singer repeatedly returns, both here and subsequently throughout the performance: the mukhra encapsulates the melodic and poetic essence of the composition. After the composition has been sung, the singer embarks on a detailed, improvised exposition of the rag, gradually expanding in range, note by note, until every possibility has been exhausted. Faster and more rhythmic improvisation follows, culminating in virtuoso passage-work (tans). If the tempo thus far has been slow a second composition, in fast tempo and followed by more tans, completes the performance. Throughout the performance the tanbura provides a drone, the tabla drum maintains a rhythmic cycle (tal) and the sarangi (bowed lute), the traditional accompanying instrument for khyal, or a harmonium, echoes the vocal melody.

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