Ravi Shankar: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• Ali Akbar Khan
• Lakshminarayana Shankar
• John McLaughlin
• Yusef Lateef
• Ustad Vilayat Khan
• Imrat Khan
• Khan, Ustad Ali Akbar

• The Beatles
• The Stooges
• Robben Ford
• George Harrison
• Nataraj XT
• John McLaughlin
• Collin Walcott

• The Beatles
• Harihar Rao

• Shubho Shankar
• Kumar Bose
• Ronu Mazumdar
• Richard Bock
• Partha Sarathy
• Suresh Lalwani
• Kurt Munkasci

Born:

Apr 7, 1920 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

Genres:

Music, World & International Music, Indian Music, Classical Music

Decades Active:

1950's|1960's|1970's|1980's|1990's|2000's

Artistic Quality

High

Cultural Impact

High

Popularity

High

Ratings Guide

Born on April 7, 1920, in Varanasi near Benares in West Bengal into an orthodox, well-off Brahmin family, Rabindra Shankar Chowdery's father, ShyÆm Shankar, was employed as a diwan (minister) by the Maharajah of Jhalawar. By the age of 13, Ravi Shankar was going along on every tour of his brother Uday Shankar's Compaigne de Danse et Musique Hindou (Company of Hindu Dance and Music). At the

-All-Bengali Music Conference in December 1934, he met the multi-instrumentalist Allauddin Khan. Precisely when Allauddin Khan was born is uncertain. People hazard dates in the 1860s around 1862, but in later years he himself gave his age haphazardly. He would transform many musicians' lives, but he had an incalculable effect on Ali Akbar (his son), Annapurna Devi (his daughter), and Ravi Shankar himself.

Allauddin Khan joined Uday's troupe as its principal soloist around 1935-1936.

In 1938, Ravi Shankar gave up a potential career as a dancer and went to study with Allauddin Khan in Maihar. In 1939, he began giving public recitals and came out of training at the end of 1944. Until 1948, he based himself in Bombay and gave programs all over India. He toured and wrote for films and ballet. Around this time he began his recording career with a small session for HMV (India). Work for All India Radio followed; as music director from February 1949 to January 1956 in New Delhi. Concurrently, his international star was on the rise. In 1954, he performed in the Soviet Union. In 1956, he played his debut solo concerts in Western Europe and the U.S. Within a decade he would be the most famous Indian musician on the planet. Within two decades he would become probably the most famous Indian alive. His English-language autobiography, -My Music, My Life (1969), is still one of the best general introductions to Hindustani music.

Ravi Shankar is not one-dimensional. Apart from pursuing a career as a classical performer, he has also experimented outside this field. For this reason he has attracted criticism from purists. Some of this, especially during the Beatles era, undoubtedly had an element of jealousy to it; some was certainly warranted, because Ravi Shankar did take many chances. In fact, that was one of the things that kept his music exciting. To use a cricketing image -- baseball would be wholly inappropriate -- Ravi Shankar's batting average has remained high throughout a long and illustrious career. ~ Ken Hunt, All Music Guide