The strains of the master's strings

Kavita Das

The shimmering strum of the sitar’s strings, which just decades ago was heard only on the Indian subcontinent, is now recognised and appreciated all over the world. There is one musician who is most responsible for taking Indian music beyond India: sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. Over the course of his 92 years, Shankar became the most prolific and iconic Indian musician of his generation and his influence not only spanned the globe, it touched several genres of music.

On April 7, 1920, Shankar was born into a family immersed in the arts, from his father, a lawyer by training who loved to create dramatic productions of Indian stories for English audiences, to his brother Uday, who started out a painter and became an early innovator in Indian modern dance. Young Shankar started his artistic career dancing in his brother’s dance productions but soon fell under the spell of the sitar. After studying intensively under the guidance of sarod maestro Ustad Allauddin Khan, Shankar established himself on the Indian stage as a prodigious and masterful sitarist.

Even early on Shankar wasn’t satisfied with following the traditional artistic career of a solo artiste. He became a musical composer for the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), then adapted Nehru’s book The Discovery of India for the stage with former members of his brother’s dance troupe and fellow musicians. Later, he would go on to create his own musical productions, like Melody and Rhythm and serve as a Musical Director for All India Radio. He would also lend his musical talents as the composer of scores for films like Satyajit Ray’s award-winning Apu Trilogy.

In the 1960s, the world began to be curious and hungry for Indian music after hearing samples through rock ’n’ roll tunes experimenting with Indian instrumentation and sounds by the likes of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Beatles guitarist, George Harrison, who played the sitar on their hit song, “Norwegian Wood”, searched out Shankar in order to study sitar and the principles of Indian music under him. Thus, began perhaps the most legendary intercultural musical friendship of the twentieth century. Of Shankar, as a teacher and collaborator, Harrison said, “The feelings I got were of his patience, compassion, and humility. The fact that he could do one of his five-hour concerts, but at the same time he could sit down and teach somebody from scratch the very basics …”

Whether it's his intrepid role as a cultural ambassador bringing Indian music into the hearts and minds of listeners the world over, or his role as a sitar maestro, Ravi Shankar's musical legacy is expansive in its reach and profound in its significance. There's no doubt that his music will continue to be celebrated

Harrison and Shankar would go on to collaborate on multiple albums and tours, including their 1971 charity Concert for Bangladesh, which raised significant funds and won a Grammy award and the 1974 50-stadium tour for Harrison’s first solo album and the Shankar Family and Friends album, produced by Harrison. This breakthrough tour featured some of the most talented Hindustani and Carnatic musicians, including his sister-in-law Hindustani singer Lakshmi Shankar, santoorist Shivkumar Sharma, flautist Hari Prasad Chaurasia, tabla player Alla Rakha, mridangam player Palghat Raghu, Carnatic violinist L. Subramaniam, and others.

Shankar was drawn to creatively bringing Indian music into new forums and forms. He composed Concertos for Sitar and Orchestra, premiering them with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of his friend and collaborator conductor Zubin Mehta. His 1974 collaboration with Harrison yielded the Hindustani pop song, “I Am Missing You”, written by Shankar, produced by Harrison, and sung by Lakshmi Shankar. Near the end of his life, he also composed an opera, Sukanya, in tribute to his second wife, Sukanya Shankar. However, Shankar had strong feelings about Indian music being used or subsumed within other genres of music, relegated to being just an exotic motif.

As a musician, Shankar’s greatest love and talent was reserved for Hindustani music. He was a consummate artist, riveting lay audiences and connoisseurs alike with his improvisatory live performances and enthralling them with the sublime musical dexterity of his recordings. Of his aspirations as a musician, Shankar explained, “My goal has always been to take the audience along with me deep inside, as in meditation, to feel the sweet pain of trying to reach out for the supreme, to bring tears to the eyes, and to feel totally peaceful and cleansed.”

Beyond his role as a performer of Hindustani music was his role as a composer. Shankar not only composed Hindustani songs, he is also believed to have created the ragas, Tilak Shyam, Nat Bhairav and Bairagi.

His tireless role as a performer and cultural ambassador for Indian music earned Ravi Shankar a host of awards. At home in India, he was bestowed a Padma Bhushan, a Padma Vibhushan and SangeetNatakAkademi Award and Fellowship, and in 1999, he was recognised with India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna. In his adopted home of the United States, Shankar earned five Grammy awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement. Meanwhile, abroad, Shankar was named a Commander of the Legion of Honour of France and an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

On the personal front, Ravi Shankar’s life was filled with incredible highs and lows. He married Annapurna Devi, the daughter of his guruji, Ustad Allaudin Khan, who was herself a talented surbahar player. However, their marriage frayed and Annapurna Devi stopped performing, blaming Shankar’s artistic jealousy. Shankar, by his own admission, was a ladies man but he eventually settled down with Sukanya Shankar, his second wife, whom he married in 1989. He was devastated when is son, Shubhendra, an emerging musician, died suddenly after an acute illness in 1992. Shankar himself suffered from heart issues during the last decades of his life. However, he kept touring and recording, giving his last concert just a few weeks before his death on December 11, 2012 at the age of 92.

Shankar was also blessed with two daughters, who are award-winning musicians in their own rights — nine-time Grammy-winning folk and blues singer Norah Jones and six-time Grammy-nominated sitarist Anoushka Shankar, who trained intensively under her father but is charting her own path as both a Hindustani and world music musician, the very genre her father helped pioneer.

Whether it’s his intrepid role as a cultural ambassador bringing Indian music into the hearts and minds of listeners the world over, or his role as a sitar maestro — the most iconic Indian musician of the twentieth century, or his collaborations which spanned multiple genres, or his gifted progeny who have inherited his musical passion and talent, Ravi Shankar’s musical legacy is expansive in its reach and profound in its significance. There’s no doubt that his music and contributions will continue to be celebrated for another hundred years and beyond.

The writer is the author of Poignant Song: The Life and Music of Lakshmi Shankar (Harper Collins India, 2019)". @kavitamix

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