His name will be for many, me included, will always entwined with George Harrison of the Beatles. The instrument they shared a love of, the sitar, was brought to the attention of most in the mid to late 1960s, through George’s use of it on songs like Within You Without You, whilst studying under Ravi Shankar.
Born Robrindo Shaunkor Chowdhury (other spellings are available) in April 1920 in the holy city of Varanasi – then called Benares- he was the youngest of seven sons of his father Shyam, a barrister from East Bengal, who for a while, worked in the Middle Temple in London. His wife back in India, Hemangini Devi, raised their sons. Father finally met his youngest boy, when he was 8 years old.
He was born Bengali Brahman, the highest social class in the Hindu tradition. His Sanskrit name of Ravindra was later shortened to Ravi, meaning Sun and he attended the local high school. His brother Uday had become a very well-known choreographer and when his dance troupe were booked for a trip to Paris in 1930, Ravi went with them. Within a few years later, then aged 13, and a naturally talented dancer himself, he joined them full time. Whilst on future tours, he learnt his way around various Indian instruments, as well as learning the French language. Finding himself not only all over Europe, but in the US too on these tours, he also discovered traditional classical music as well as jazz, the cinema and the western way of life in general.
He then became a student of musician Allauddin Khan who had toured with the troupe in 1935. Khan offed Ravi the chance to study full time, on the proviso that he quit touring and settle in the state of Maihar.
‘Khan told me you have to leave everything else and do one thing properly.’
So, by 1938 Ravi had given up on his dancing and moved to Maihar. There he took tuition on sitar and surbahar and picked up the rudiments of other instruments. He first performed in public on the sitar in 1939. He completed his training in 1944 and then moved to Mumbai, where he composed music for ballets from the mid 40s and he found recording work at HMV India . He also worked as musical director for All India Radio (AIR) in New Delhi from 1949 till 1956 . Amongst all that, he also found time to work on several Hindi films such as Anuradha and Godaan.
He had met the world-renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin in the early 50s, and he invited Ravi to perform in New York, giving a demonstration of Indian music . This led him to resign from AIR and instead, he travelled extensively in the UK, parts of Europe and the US, in a dual role, as an educator and performer.
He recorded his first album Three Ragas in London in 1956 and undertook a world tour in 1961, where along the way, he taught John Coltrane and Don Ellis, key elements of Indian music that same year. In1962 he founded the Kinnara School of Music in Mumbai. He composed the tune Rangeela for Buddy Rich and tabla player Alla Rakha, which was included on the album Rich à la Rakha, released in 1968.
Whilst recording himself for World Pacific Records in the States, he was heard by the group The Byrds. They then used elements of his sound in their own music. Now very much on the radar of the Hippie generation, he played at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 alongside the likes of Jimi Hendrix. He wasn’t sure on what he witnessed.
‘That was too much for me. In our culture, we have such respect for musical instruments, they are like part of God.’
By virtue of his friendship with Roger McGough and David Crosbie of The Byrd’s, Ravi was brought to the attention of Beatle George. He had bought a sitar and used it on Norwegian Wood in 1965, and then met Ravi in London in 1966. He then studied sitar with him in 1968, which became a big turning point in popularising the use of Indian instruments in Western pop.
Patti Boyd – ‘I think Ravi was rather taken aback, because he was a classical musician, and rock and roll was really out of his sphere. He thought it rather amusing that George took to him so much, but he and George really bonded. Ravi realised that it wasn’t just a fashion for George, that he had dedication. Ravi had such integrity, and was someone to be respected, and at the same time huge fun. George hadn’t really met anyone like that, and he really encouraged his interest.’
1968 proved to be a good year for Ravi, as he also picked up a Grammy that year for his collaborative work with Yehudi Menuhin, and he also opened the Western branch of his Kinnara School in Los Angeles. A year later, he landed at Woodstock, but found it was not for him.
‘It makes me feel rather hurt when I see the association of drugs with our music. The music to us is religion. The quickest way to reach Godliness is through music. I don’t like the association of one bad thing with the music.’
Now spending more and more time in the US, he became head of the Department of Indian Music of the California Institute of the Arts in 1970, along with lecturing at other institutions of learning. He performed with the LSO, conducted by Andre Previn, later that year and then performed at the Concert for Bangladesh, which he and George Harrison organised.
Its aim was to raise awareness for the plight of refugees, following the liberation war in the region. The resulting album won a Grammy. A funny moment occurred, when the crowd broke out into applause, as Ravi and his musicians tuned up.
Ravi commented ‘If you like our tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.’
George Harrison ‘(He is) the godfather of world music.’
Whilst on a later tour with George in 1974 Ravi found the heavy work load and touring schedule, weakened him and he suffered an heart attack, thankfully going to recover well. He won an Oscar for his score for the film Gandhi in 1983, and then entered politics in 1986 at the behest of the then Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. 1990 saw him release the album Passages with composer Philip Glass and he started touring again, though in a lighter capacity, sometimes in accompaniment with his daughter Anoushka, who he had taught the sitar.
Following the death of his great friend George in 2001, he performed at the Concert for George at the Royal Albert Hall in 2002.
Olivia Harrison , Georges widow – ‘When George heard Indian music, that really was the trigger, it was like a bell that went off in his head. It not only awakened a desire to hear more music, but also to understand what was going on in Indian philosophy. It was a unique diversion.’
Away from his musical life, Ravi had married Annapurna Devi, the daughter of his first great teacher Allauddin Khan in 1941, and they had a son Shubhedra in 1942. Following a spilt with Annapurna, he returned to a relationship with the dancer Kamala Shtris. A later affair with US concert producer Susan Jones, resulted in the birth of a daughter in 1970. She later found fame as the singer Norah Jones. Anoushka was born in 1981, the result of a liaison with Sukanya Rajan, who Ravi later married in 1989. His son Shubhendra also performed with his father, before succumbing to pneumonia in 1992. Keeping it in the family, Ravi’s nephew, Ananda Shankar, was the experimental musician who fused the Western and Eastern musical styles.
1999 Ravi was awarded a Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India) the highest civilian honour in India. In 2000 he became a Commandeur de la Légion d’Honneur in France, and in 2001 an honorary KBE in Britain.
Ravi Shankar died on December 9th in 2012 after undergoing heart surgery. He was 92.
The Mumper of SE5
Read The Mumper’s other weekly musings on ‘The Speakeasy’ blog page
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