Pt. Ravi Shankar

 

Pandit Ravi Shankar is a living legend who is a genius Sitar player. Born on 7th April, 1920 in Banaras, his family was a Bengali Brahmin family who named him Ravindra Shankar. Shyam Shankar, his father, was a barrister. He had an elder brother Uday Shankar who was a famous Indian classical dancer. In his younger years, Ravi played Sitar the dance troupe of Uday Shankar, especially with Anna Pavlova. In 1938, he studied under his guru, Allaudin Khan. 


 

He took Indian classical music out of baithaks and soirees into the public arena' and made classical Indian sitar an international craze' with admirers including the likes of Yehudi Menuhin and the Beatles. As purists raised eyebrows' he experimented boldly' collaborated widely' but never made the journey from popular to populist'his roots in the sitar's classical traditions ran too deep. 

 

For the next seven years he learnt the nuances of playing the sitar from Ustad Allauddin Khan. He also went to marry Ustad Allauddin Khan daughter, Anapurna in the year 1941. Pandit Ravi Shankar was able to establish his name as a performer and did his first concert in 1939. The following year he began appearing on programs in All India Radio. The most memorable of these were his jugalbandis with another upcoming artist, Ali Akbar Khan, who is today a maestro of the sarod. Over the next decade he would move across the country performing in a variety of programs and even working in theatre and films. By the 1950's he was keen to take his music abroad, for during his years in Paris he realized that the people there did not know much about Indian music. In 1952, he came into contact with Yehudi Menuhin, a Russian musician who expressed a sincere interest in Indian music. Encouraged by this, Pandit Jasraj toured the USSR in 1954 and two years later went on to tour Europe and America. In 1958 he visited Japan and then played in Paris as part of a UNESCO festival. During the fusion years of the 1960's he worked with several western musicians, one of his most famous such collaborations was with George Harisson (an ex-Beatle) in 1966. A collaboration with Yehudi Menuhin won them a grammy in 1967 and he followed that up with another Grammy in 1972 when he and George Harisson won a Grammy for best album. He also performed at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. Over the next few decades he would compose and perform music at various locations around the world. He is a regular performer in India and abroad, and has performed in almost all parts of the world. His performances not only made him a popular artist abroad, but also increased awareness of Indian classical music abroad and paved the way for other Indian musicians to perform abroad. For most of the 1970's he focused more on India, as he was worried that the tremendous international exposure was harming Indian music. He however returned actively to international work from the 1980's onwards. Pandit Ravi Shankar is a recipient of several awards like the Padma Vibhushan (one of India's highest civilian awards), the Grand Prize at the Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prizes, France's Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and eleven honorary doctorates. In his 80's now, he still performs and is based in California, USA. He has a daughter Anoushka (from his second wife Sukanya)and is busy training her in music. Although he is based abroad, he still makes it a point to regularly visit India.