Vilayat Khan: Ambassador for the sitar

Khan, 76, had been suffering from lung cancer.

A pioneer of Indian classical music, he was one of the first sitar players to take his music overseas.

Khan came from six generations of musicians, and taught and performed Indian classical music in the United States.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in a statement: "Vilayat Khan was a child prodigy to whom goes the credit of taking the sitar beyond the shores of the country."

Child prodigy

Khan, who lived in India and the US, was born in present-day Bangladesh. His father Ustad Inayat Khan was a famous sitar player too.

The younger Khan gave his first public performance when he was six years old, and made his first recordings two years later.

Apart from touring and recording in India and overseas, Khan also composed music for celebrated Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray's film, Jalsaghar (The Music Room), and for the Ismail-Merchant-James Ivory film, The Guru.

In one of his last overseas performances, Khan regaled audiences last September in New York, where he was scheduled to perform again this year.

Khan's body was being flown to his home in the eastern city of Calcutta for burial on Monday, family members said.

Two of Khan's brothers - Ustad Rais Khan and Ustad Imrat Khan - play the sitar and the surbahar, a larger, deeper-toned relative of the sitar, respectively.