Pandit ravi shankar biography meaning

OLIVER CRASKE WAS only 23 when he met Pandit Ravi Shankar for the first time in 1994. He was to help the 74-year-old sitarist put together his autobiography, Raga Mala, and at that meet­ing, Craske was nervous. Speaking on the phone from London, Craske says, “He did his best to put me to ease. You sensed he was very erudite about music but not in an intimidating way. He welcomed you in.” Sitting down on a sofa with Shankar, Craske was struck by the musician’s knowledge and experience, but also by his personality. “He had an aura that made you want to spend time with him.”

Their relationship endured, lasting until Shankar’s death in 2012. Shankar would regularly update Craske on the develop­ments of his life, encouraging him to assume the role of a future biographer. The recently released Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar (Faber & Faber; 672 pages; Rs 799) sees Craske deftly make use of the confidences he had been trusted with. But helping the book exceed the biases of Shankar and his in­ner circle, Craske relied on a repository of another 130 inter­views when writing Shankar’s first biography. Even though Craske confesses he “was awestruck by [Shankar’s] prodigious musicality”, he seldom venerates his subject. He doesn’t use the epithet ‘ji’ for Shankar. He refers to him as ‘Ravi’.

Indian Sun is more than a sum of colourful an­ecdotes. It balances personal history with evidence of Shankar’s musical mastery. Craske writes about Hindustani classical music lucidly, never alienat­ing the uninitiated. He explains the structure of raga and the cycles of tala with an acuity that is always accessible. “I wasn’t his formal disciple, but if you were with [Shankar], he would want you to understand the music,” says Craske. “He was a great teacher and proselytiser for music. I would say that I’ve learnt from the best.”

The list of Shankar’s Western pupils is long. It boasts of names such as George Ha

In his own words

by Sachi Sri Kantha, December 18, 2012

Unlike the tone taken by many facultative memoirists who had poured out their sentiments on the recent death of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar on December 11 to the Hindu (Chennai) newspaper, strictly I avoid their style of presenting their reminiscences on how they had a brief (or lengthy) interaction with the Master. Of course, I did attend two of Ravi Shankar’s live concerts (one in Colombo, the other one when I was a student at the University of Illinois) for the thrill of it. But having been trained in Carnatic (Karnatic) Music, I failed to appreciate the nuances of Hindustani Music performed by Ravi Shankar. All I could infer was that he was hell of a musician and composer who was blessed with energy and passion.

As such, I take an alternate route to pay my respects to Ravi Shankar. He was also a courageous autobiographer to record his life for posterity. As he himself had admitted in his preface to the 1997 autobiography, “To write a book on one’s own life is not an easy job.” I enjoyed reading his early autobiography ‘My Music My Life’(1968), more than 30 years ago. Subsequently, in 2005, I bought a copy of his second autobiography book Raga Mala (1997), which was edited and introduced by George Harrison (1943-2001), the lead guitarist of the Beatles group. Violinist Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) had contributed an ‘Afterword’ to the book. This 336 page work, includes a fine assemblage of vintage period photos of many personalities, who crossed Ravi Shankar’s life (see the scans of his life chronology). One can view this tribute as a laudatory book review of Ravi Shankar’s autobiography. I provide a few excerpts from this autobiography below.

Ravi Shankar had named 10 chapters for each raga. What is a raga? As Ravi Shankar explains in the glossary to his book, its ‘the melodic form at the centre of Hindustani and Carnatic classical music; the ba

Ravi Shankar was the 20th century’s most famous player of the complex stringed instrument known as the sitar. The 1950s were possibly Shankar’s most creative period: he composed and performed, worked as musical director of All-India Radio in Delhi, created the Vadya Vrinda Chamber Orchestra, scored films (most notably the Apu Trilogy of director Satyajit Ray) and began touring the world and winning acclaim for himself and for Indian music. In the 1960s, Ravi Shankar grew still more famous for his influence on The Beatles, who used a sitar in some of their more psychedelic tunes. (Shankar was particular friends with George Harrison, who produced some of Shankar’s later albums.) As years passed, Ravi Shankar became known less as a performer and more as an elder statesman of world music. In 2000 he was given the French Legion of Honor, and in 2001 he was awarded an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.

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