Ravi Shankar Biography
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| Ravi Shankar |
As an exponent of Indian music and an incomparable
sitarist, Pandit Ravi Shankar enjoyed great popularity all over the world. He
made a very notable contribution in popularising Indian music in foreign
countries. All his performances staged abroad, in USA, Europe and Australia,
were a tremendous success. The Westerners had been enraptured by Ravi Shankar’s
music and they also derived spiritual satisfaction from it. Ravi Shankar was
undoubtedly one of the greatest sitarists ever.
Ravi Shankar was born on April 7, 1920 in Benaras (now
Varanasi). As a member of the dance troupe of his brother Uday Shankar, Ravi
studied music and dance and toured India and Europe extensively. At the age of
18, Shankar gave up dancing and started learning sitar (a long-necked stringed
instrument of the lute family), under Ustad Allauddin Khan. At a young age of
25, he composed the tune of Sare Jahan Se Achcha.
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| Ravi Shankar |
Shankar served as a music director of All India Radio
from 1948 till 1956. He composed the film scores for Satyajit Ray (Indian
director)’s famous Apu Trilogy (1955-59). In 1962, he founded the Kinnara
School of Music in Bombay and then in Los Angeles (1967). Ravi Shankar was the
first Indian musician who composed music for foreign films. During 1967-74, he
composed and conducted festivals of Indian music with top musicians of Europe
and America. He also composed music for the welcome song of the IX Asiad held
at Delhi. Together with his brother, the choreographer Uday, Ravi explored
classical and folk dance and helped his brother to create dance dramas that
included social comments.
Internationally known sitar maestro, Ravi Shankar
always had a designer look, to both his persona and his art. This look enabled
him to present classical Indian music to a modern, international audience. Even
in India, it is largely after Ravi Shankar’s example that the present day
format of an instrumental concert has evolved. He also started the practice of
giving the table player his due on the concert stage. He raised north Indian
instrumental music to its present level of structural sophistication, musical
expression as well as public appeal. He has developed new ragas like
Parmeshwari, Kameshwari, Vairag Todi, Manmanjari, Pancham, etc.
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| Ravi Shankar |
Ravi Shankar received a number of prestigious awards
and honours, both national and international. To mention some important ones :
International Music Vensco Award, Silver Bear and Venice Festival Award. In
1976, he was elected a fellow of the Sangeet Natak Academy. In 1962 and 1980,
he was the recipient of Presidential Awards. Some universities in India as well
as abroad have also conferred doctorates on him. Government of India honoured
him by nominating him to Rajya Sabha in 1986. In 1999, he was conferred the
Bharat Ratna. He received the Magsaysay Award in 1992, Polar Music Prize in
1998, Japan’s Praemium Imperiale Award and France’s highest civilian honour,
Commandeur de La Legion d’ Honneur in 2000.
As a prolific composer, Ravi Shankar was the first to
have an interface with Western musicians to make the space for fusions of all
sorts which have followed in his wake. Shankar’s concert performances with the
violinist Yehudi Menuhin and his association with George Harrison of Beatles,
helped bring Indian music to the attention of the west. He is the founder of
the National Orchestra of India. In 1969, Shankar published his autobiography
entitled My life, My music. Thus, Shankar’s legacy will be as much a watershed
in our cultural landscape as that of his Liverpool acolytes on the global
stage.
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| Ravi Shankar |
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