One of India's best known tabla players, Ustad Allarakha Khan, has died in Bombay of a heart attack, at the age of 81.

His family said he was unable to recover from the shock of losing his daughter, who died on Wednesday.

Father and daughter are to be buried on Friday.

Mr Khan, who performed around the world, played with leading musicians, including the Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, the late violinist Sir Yehudi Menuhin, and rock stars such as the Beatles and Mick Jagger.

"The country has lost an accomplished maestro whose mastery over the tabla created waves all over the world," Mr Vajpayee said.

President K R Narayanan said with Mr Khan's demise "an uncommon pulsation has been stilled.

Mr Khan is survived by his wife, three sons and another daughter.

All three sons are renowned tabla players with the eldest, Zakir Hussain, now arguably India's best known percussionist.

Extraordinary career

Ustad Allarakha Khan was born in 1919 in a village near Jammu, in Kashmir, and was the eldest of seven brothers in a family of farmers and soldiers.

The family later moved to Lahore where he trained in the tabla as well as in Indian classical vocals.

He worked in both radio and in the film industry and later set up a music institute in Bombay, where he often taught.

He once said in an interview that when he played outside India, his aim was to teach the Western world about the beauty of Indian music.

When asked to say a few words at his 80th birthday celebrations last year, he played the tabla instead.

"This is the language I know," he told the audience.