Transitions: ‘Mozart of India’ Ravi Shankar dies at 92

Menuhin, himself widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, compared Shankar to Mozart.

LOS ANGELES:

Sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, who helped introduce the sitar to the Western world through his collaborations with The Beatles, died near his home in Southern California on Tuesday, his family said. He was 92.

Shankar, a three-time Grammy winner with legendary appearances at the 1967 Monterey Festival and Woodstock, had been in fragile health for several years and last Thursday underwent surgery, his family said in a statement.

The statement said Shankar had suffered from upper respiratory and heart issues over the past year and underwent heart-valve replacement surgery last week.

The surgery was successful but he was unable to recover.

Shankar lived in both India and the United States. He taught close friend the late  Beatle George Harrison to play the sitar and collaborated with him on several projects, including the ground-breaking Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 to raise awareness of the war-wracked nation.



Harrison called him “The Godfather of World Music” and Menuhin, himself widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, compared him to Mozart. Other devotees included jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, whom he taught Indian improvisation techniques.

Shankar, a three-time Grammy winner, was also on the bill with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix at the Woodstock Festival in New York state in 1969 when 500,000 people gathered for one of the iconic cultural events of the century.

Dressed in traditional Indian clothes and seated on the floor when playing, he was lauded by the hippie generation but he expressed reservations about the excesses of Western stars and said his priorities were music, yoga and philosophy.

Shankar’s wife Sukanya and his younger daughter Anoushka, 31, described him as a “husband, father, and musical soul”.

He is also survived by his daughter, Grammy-winning singer Norah Jones, three grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Shankar is credited with popularising Indian music through his work with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and The Beatles in the late 1960s.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2012.