Freeindia > Musicians > Ravi Shankar
The melodious strains of Ravi Shankar's sitar have carried Indian music across the seven seas. Ravi Shankar is now a world famous personality. His recitals in India and abroad draw huge crowds. Millions of fans gather to hear him. Films are being made about his life. Ravi Shankar had ridden the crest of popularity for over 30 years and this popularity shows no signs of abatement. This era in music could truly be called the Ravi Shankar era. He has contributed a golden page to the history of Indian classical music.

I met Ravi Shankar in 1940. He is about 10 years younger than me, and at that time he was in his twenties. Fair and slim, this curly haired youth worked with me in the studio for some time. Even in those early days his intelligence and dedication to music were apparent. I always felt that his tremendous creative ability was being wasted in the HMV studio and that he would soon do much better for himself. This was proved to be correct when, a few years later, Pandit Ravi Shankar's magnificent music conquered the world, and his fame reached great heights.

Pandit Ravi Shankar's father was an eminent barrister and a very high official in a princely state. Ravi Shankar had a happy childhood. His was a family of artists, and all his brothers have become famous in different artistic spheres. His eldest brother was the world renowned dancer Uday Shankar, the two other brothers Sachin Shankar and Rajendra Shankar are also very well known. Ravi Shankar studied music and learnt to play the sitar under the guidance of Ustad Allaudin Khan. His sangeet sadhana was as strenuous and gruelling as the tapasya (penance) done in the olden days by ascetics seeking knowledge in the ashrams of their gurus. Living with Ustad Allaudin Khan and pursuing his study, Ravi Shankar had to undergo rigorous trials. The Ustad was a difficult master. At times Ravi Shankar was even subjected to physical punishment. Coming as he did from an affluent and very highly placed family, it was very difficult for him to bear the hard work and humiliating treatment. One day he tried to run away from the guru's home. A friend, however, brought him back from the station.

(***Insert***: This friend was the Ustad's now-famous son, Ali Akbar Khan. There's an interesting story about this incident and curious readers are referred to Ravi Shankar's autobiography "My Music, My Life". It should be available at the university libraries.....Rajan).
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The next morning Ustad Allaudin Khan came to know of Ravi Shankar's attempt to escape. The Ustad was so upset at this that he burst into tears and embraced his pupil. Ustad Allaudin Khan not only imparted his treasure of knowledge to this favourite disciple, but in addition bestowed upon him the hand of his daughter Annapurna in marriage.

Although Ustad Allaudin Khan was a Muslim by birth, his general behaviour, his style of living and his dress were those of an orthodox Hindu. I had the opportunity to meet Allaudin Khan and to observe him closely when I visited Jodhpur with Ravi Shankar on an invitation from the maharaja. I first saw him in the early hours of the morning. He was wearing a brahminic style dhoti and was offering puja to Laxmi and Saraswati. He looked exactly like one's concept of a pious freshly bathed learned brahmin scholar of vedic times. When Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar combined their skills at mehfils and on records, and presented their artistic craftmanship on the sarod and sitar, they received tremendous ovations. In search of wider audiences they proceeded to Europe from where, encouraged by their success, they went on to America. Their tremendous popularity in America induced them to stay there to try new experiments and set new trends in music. They have both spent the greater part of their last few years outside India, and, in their separate ways won countless fans through their concerts. Pandit Ravi Shankar started a music school, the Kinnara school, at Los Angeles in California, but he very recently closed it and has returned to India with the intention of starting an Ashram in the holy city of Varanasi. Ali Akbar, however, has decided to stay on in San Rafael, to coach Americans in the art of playing Indian classical music.

In his efforts to induce Western listeners to appreciate and enjoy Indian music, Ravi Shankar adopted a technique of presentation different from the old traditional style. Naturally there arose the fear that Indian tradition and prestige of Indian music might suffer in the process. Critics accused Ravi Shankar of polluting the high and chaste standard of presentation and even feared that the purity of ragas was at stake. It is, however, true that from the point of view of acquainting Western listeners with Indian music and training them to listen to and enjoy the artistic beauty of our music, the method and course adopted by Ravi Shankar was the correct one. Through his novel technique of presentation, he taught Western listeners what to look for in our music for real appreciation and enjoyment. Sitars, which sell moderately well in India, were exported in thousands to America and other Western countries. This proved the popularity and success of Ravi Shankar. In 1969, he was cited as 'Musician of the Year' by one of the leading organs of America's musical industry, Billboard Magazine. Freeindia > Musicians > Ravi Shankar
Enticed by Ravi Shankar and his sitar, George Harrison of the famous group, the Beatles, came to Bombay some years ago. While he was there he gave a demonstration of Indian music in our studio, and I was witness to the miraculous achievement of Pandit Ravi Shankar. In his never ending quest for novel ideas, and to successfully arrange a meeting between the music of the East and West, Ravi Shankar made an LP record entitled 'Sitar Concerto' supported entirely by a Western orchestra in London. This record will undoubtedly be a great asset in considerably increasing the interest of Western listeners in Indian music. I, however, honestly feel that such a fusion of two styles so different from each other will never hold lastingly together.

The classical nature of Ravi Shankar's sitar playing has remained pure and unaffected, inspite of his having stayed abroad for several years. He has mastered every aspect of sitar playing such as alap, jod, gat, zala, etc. During the alap movement he reveals the magnificent structure of a raga in a delightfully elaborate style. The jod and gat, that follow the alap movement, are so resplendent with the remarkable display by his artistic nimble fingers, that the audience remains completely hypnotized and spellbound. Inspite of the great success that has come his way Ravi Shankar has remained a very humble person.

Apart from his sitar playing Ravi Shankar has won a big name in other fields of music too. For a few years he conducted the orchestra in All India Radio, and at that time he made recordings of ragas presented in an entirely novel and unique way. He scored the background music for several Hindi films with great success. The films Kabuliwala and Pather Panchali need special mention in this connection. More creditable still is the fact that he is the first ever Indian artist to be selected to provide music for western films. Fame, honour and titles of every kind have been showered upon the great maestro. In 1957, at the Berlin film festival, there was conferred upon him the prestigious 'Silver Bear' award for the background music of Kabuliwala. The Indian government has already honoured him with the Padmabhushan.

I always consider it a great privilege to have a friend like him who, after winning such international acclaim, is still so modest and loving at heart.