Ravi Shankar

The great legendary well known in the bollywood named Ravi Shankar was born on 7 April 1920 in Varanasi. He was entitled by tha name Pandit. He is an Indian musician and composer too who always plays with sitar.Earlier he was known by his original name Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury.

His birthplace is Varanasi and during his young stage, he spend his time in Europe and in India he accompanied his brother Uday Shankar in his dance troup . Later on he left dancing in 1938 and through started playing Sitar under the guidance of the Musician Allauddin Khan. After completing his studies, Shankar worked in several of segments, as a composer, he helped Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray and served All India Radio by being a diractor there since 1949 to 1956.

In 1956, he started visiting Europe and America to widespread the popularity and curiosity of playing Sitar and finally in the era of 1960s, Shankar was successfully increased the magic of playing sitar by performing and teaching among the association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and with the rock artist George Harrison of The Beatles. He also toured world in 1970s nd 1980s and also he introduced Western Music by writing concerti for sitar and orchestra too. During 1986 to 1992, he was nominated as a member of the Upper Chamber of the Parliament of India.He is the only person who was awarded as India’s highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna in 1999, and he was also honored by three more Grammy Awards. He continues his performance along with her daughter in 2000s too.

Biography

Ravi Shankar took birth on 7 April 1920 in the Bengali Brahmin family being as youngest among his six brothers. He was named by his parents as Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury. Shyam Shankar, father of Ravi Shankar was a Middle Temple barrister and scholar who served as dewan of Jhalawar. His mother name was Hemangini Devi and afterwards in London, she worked as a lawyer. His father Shyam Shakar used the Sanskrit spelling of his family name and remove its last part. Shyam Shankar again married while Devi stood apart from her son until he was of the age of eight. Shankar shortened his name from Ravindra to Ravi which signifies the meaning as “sun”.

Shankar went to Paris with the dance group which was choreographed by his brother Uday Shankar on his first 10 years of Varanasi. When he was of 13 he had been selected as a member of the group, carried its member on tour and gained idea of dance and play on various Indian Instruments. In the mid of 1930s, the dance group of Uday Shankar had been tripped to Europe and America. Meanwhile Shankar learned the French and also discovered Western Classical Music, jazz and cinema and become friendly with the customs of western area. Shankar married to Allauddin Khan’s daughter Annapurna Devi in 1941 and though he had a son named Shubhendra Shankar who was born in 1942. Afterwards Shankar aparted from Devi in the era of 1940s and committed with Kamala Shastri, she was a dancer, starting in the late 1940s. Although commitment with Sue Jones, a New York concert producer, gave birth to Norab Jones in 1979.

Once Shankar heared the lead musician for the Maihar Court, Allauddin Khan at a Music Conference in Kolkata in 1934, Uday convinced the Maharaja of Maihar in 1935 to allow Khan to become his group’s soloist for a tour of Europe. Shankar was mainly and majorly trained by Khan on tour and Khan offered Shankar’s  training to be a serious musician under the condition that he abandon touring and came to Maihar. In 1981, Anoshka Shankar was born to Shankar and Sukanya Rajan, whom Shankar had known since the 1970s. In 1981, after division from Kamala Shastri, Shankar lived with Sue Joes till 1986. And though in 1989, he married to Sukanya Rajan.

His father was then also was accompanied by his son Shubhendra ‘Shubho’. In 1992 he was dead and also elected not to pursue a solo career and yet he could plat the sitar. In 2000s, Norah Jones became a successful musician by winning eight Grammy awards in 2003. Along with that, in 2003 Anoshka Shankar was also nominated for a Grammy awards for best World’s music album. Shankar lives with Sukanya in Encintas, California. Shankar is a vegetarian and he is a Hindu.

Career

Shankar composed two concertos for sitar and orchestra. Under the provision of Ustad Allauddin Khan between the period of 1938 and 1944, he took his primary training in music. There he began to serve as a Music Director for All India Radio (AIR) at New Delhi and between 1949 to 1956, he used to record music for HMV. In 1956, he resigned from AIR due to getting positive result while his brother-in-law was performing on the western grounds, and for this he resigned from AIR to concentrate on the foreign tours. He began with several of small audiences and by introducing South India Carnatic music in his performances, Shankar visited the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States. In the 10th anniversary celebration of the United Nations and UNESCO, he was selected one amongst the musician who was taking part in the music festival at Paris in 1958. Later on, Kinnara School of Music was established by him in Mumbai in 1962 and though he opened a Wesren branch in Los Angeles, California in 1967. In 1967, he was honored by the Grammy Awards for being Best Chamber Music Performance at the Monterey.

In 1971, as Shankar was participated in The Charity concert for Bangladesh, became one of the best selling concert albums. He was also conferred with the second Grammy Award. While touring towards North America as he was succeed in the Europe, he was suffered from the heart attack in 1974 in Chicago so his remaining portion of the visit was cencelled. In Varnasi, in 1976, he organized Research Institute for Music and Performing Arts.

Shankar also served by being a Rajya Sabha member in the Parliament of India, after being nominated by the Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi during 1986 to 1992. He gathers lots of praise and appreciation by  his affectionate works. He composed the music for the popular patriotic song “Sare Jahan Se Accha”, which is one of the famous melody till date. He also composed the music for the films as ‘Dharti Ke Lal’ and ‘Neecha Nagar’. He was never apart from his nation India, although he has to performed in various international segments, he continued to travel west to east.

He was awarded by the several of the Performer and Music awards which are mentioned as under:

Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of the Jury, Berlin International Film Festival, 1957

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, 1962

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, 1967

Padma Bhushan Award, 1967

Music award of the UNESCO International Music Council, 1975

Padma Vibhushan Award, 1981

Kalidas Samman from the Government of Madhya Pradesh, 1987-88

Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize, 1991

Ramon Magsaysay Award, 1992

Praemium Imperiale for Music from the Japan Art Association, 1997

Polar Music Prize, 1998

Bharat Ratna Award, 1999

Grammy Award for Best World Music Album, 2000

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