Indeed, when the history of music is written, Ustad Abdul Karim Khan will always be revered with awe and devotion, above all for his divine musical appeal and the extreme pathos in his singing which brings tears to eyes of sensitive listeners and uplifting their spirits reminds them of the pain and yearning of the human soul to be one with God; but also for the unique voice culture, breath-control, sargam, heavy gamak, tayyar taan, innovative synthesis of various styles of music, including the North and South Indian forms of music, and endless search for perfection which made this divine musical appeal possible.

 Born in the year 1872, Ustad Abdul Karim Khan started out as a Sarangi player. His first public concert was at the age of 11. The story goes that the spirited young Abdul Karim once refused to accept his fee from the Maharaja of Baroda after accompanying Faiz Mohammed Khan, since it was half of what Faiz Mohammed received. He contended that his music was no less than that of the singer, and therefore he should receive the same fee as him. The Maharaja recognized his talent but reminded him that accompanists were lower in rank to the singer as per customs. Abdul Karim came home, threw away his sarangi, and resolved to become a singer.

 After receiving his training from Kale Khan and Abdulla Khan, Khan Saheb went over to Baroda where he was appointed the court-musician. After some years, he left Baroda for Bombay, and then went to Miraj. Wherever he went his sweet voice and hypnotic style of singing won for him numerous admirers and accolades. From Miraj he proceeded to Hubli and Dharwar and stayed with his brother Abdul Haq, also a singer. The two brothers often used to sing together as a duo. At this time he took in Rambhau or Sawai Gandharva as his disciple who later became a very popular singer himself. While on tour at Patna, Roshanara Begum's mother became his pupil. Besides being such a great vocalist, Khan Saheb also had and amazing mastery over such varied instruments as Been or Veena, Sarangi, Jaltarang and Tabla.

 In 1913 Abdul Karim Khan founded the Arya Sangeet Vidyalaya in Puna. Khan Saheb believed in the old Gurukul system. The Ustad not only taught music, but also bore the entire cost of feeding and clothing numerous poor and deserving students out of his own earnings from concerts, took them on musical tours, and trained them on various musical instruments. It is said that Khan Saheb taught his students mainly three ragas for the morning, afternoon and night. He also claimed that all ragas were borne out of the two basic ragas, Yaman and Bhairavi.