An idol of Goddess Saraswati prepared for Vasant Panchami in the streets of Kolkata.

Vasanta (Sanskrit: वसन्तः, Hindi: बसंत, Punjabi: ਬਸਨ ﺑﺴﻨﺖ) or Basant is one of the six ritus (seasons) corresponding to spring.^[1]

It is also short for Vasanta Panchami (Sanskrit: वसन्त पञ्चमी), an Indian festival celebrated every year on the fifth day (Panchami) of the Hindu month Magh (January–February), the first day of spring.

In Ferozepur(Punjab, India), Vasant is celebrated as most auspicious festival than any other.People from all over India gathered here to feel the purity of this spring season.Vasant Panchami has its own joy and pleasure. Every year Kite Festival is celebrated in many states of India. But the border city(Ferozepur) marks the occasion on huge level of its seasonal significance.

Some of the Indian festivals have cultural significance, in addition to a religious significance (which can vary depend on the specific tradition), and are thus often celebrated by non-Hindus also in some form. These include Holi, Diwali and Raksha Bandhan in addition to Basant. Amir Khusro (1253-1325 CE) has composed songs using the word Basant (festival), and Nizamuddin Auliya used to join him in celebrating Basants of Sufis.^[2]

Flying kites[link]

A fighter Kite which is invented in India and Pakistan is called a “Patang” “Guda”. These kites were made of tissue paper and two sticks of bamboo and most recently now kites were made of plastic wrap or Mylar (Non-sticky plastic). The kites fly by line or thread. The line is called “Manjha”, a glass coated thread and each flier attempts to cut every other kite out of the sky. They always make competition with each other. The last kite flying is the winner. In many of the states they do large scale of competition. Some of the competitions are last standing kite, some competitions are beautiful kites and some competitions are related to biggest kites.

Origin[link]

In sanskrit Vasanta means spring and Panchami is the fifth day of the fortnight of waxing moon (Shukla Paksha) in the Hindu month of Magh, January–February of English calendar.

In the Vedas the day of Vasanta Panchami is dedicated to Goddess Sarasvati. It is not a national holiday in India but the schools are closed and the students participate in decoration and arrangement of the worship place. A few weeks before the celebration, schools become active in organizing various annual competitions of music, debate, sports and other activities. Prizes are distributed on the day of Vasanta Panchami. Many schools organize cultural activities in the evening of the Saraswati Puja day when parents and other community members attend the functions to encourage the children. Sarasvati is the goddess of learning. Sarasvati bestows the greatest wealth to humanity, the wealth of knowledge.

In the Vedas the prayer for Sarasvati depicts her as a white lady in white dress bedecked with white flowers and white pearls, sitting on a white lotus, which is blooming in a wide stretch of water. She holds Veena, a string-instrument, like Sitar, for playing music. The prayer finally concludes, "Oh Mother Sarasvati remove the darkness (ignorance) of my mind and bless me with the eternal knowledge." The Vedas describe Sarasvati as a water deity, goddess of a river of the same name. According to popular belief Sarasvati, originating from the Himalayas, flowed southeast, ultimately meeting the Ganges at Prayag, near the confluence of Yamuna. Hence the place is called Triveni. In due time this course of water petered away.

The mythological history of Sarasvati associates her with the holy rituals performed on the banks of the river Sarasvati. She is worshipped as a goddess of speech, attributed to the formation of Vach (words), invention of Sanskrit language and composition of hymns.^[3]

[edit] Ferozepur Celebrations of VASANT Ritu

In Ferozepur (Punjab) it is also as a Kite Festival in Border Area city of Punjab Ferozepur, This Festival is very famous in the city as boys and girls buy Dora (Thread) AND GUDE AKA PATANG (Kites)in huge quantity to fly. Children as well as young boys like this festival very much. Young boys by putting sound system on their terrace start dancing right from the evening of the previous day of Basant (vasant panchami), colour full kites in the sky makes the sky very colour full and worth seeing. People from all around the world came to enjoy this festival. It assumes that this festival is most popular festival in feroz7epur then any other. Basant Panchami has a specific meaning, Basant means Spring, whereas Panchami means the fifth day of the spring. It falls on Panchami - on the Waxing Moon. The festival lies in the month of January–February. The young girls dressed in the diverse shades of yellow magnify the splendor of nature. Kite flying, a popular sport in India, is associated with the Basant Panchami day. It is a day for young crowd - no routine work, no studies, only merry making.

Vasanta in India[link]

A kite shop selling kites in India.

Vasant is known as Basant Panchami in Punjab and Haryana.It is being celebrated in border city of Ferozepur as Kite Festival.It heralds the advent of spring. The festival is celebrated with full vivacity and festivity to mark the end of the winters. It is one of the first festivals of the Year and is celebrated all over India. On Vasant Pachami day all get up early in the morning, take bath and worship the sun, Mother Ganga, the Deity of the sacred river Ganges, and the earth. Men, women and girls wear yellow clothes. The yellow colour is a sign of auspiciousness and spirituality. It represents the ripening of the spring crops. Even the food is coloured yellow by using saffron. All the folk get together and sing songs connected with spring. Indeed, yellow colour is given special importance on this day. The goddess Saraswati is dressed in yellow garments and worshipped by men and women attired in yellow. In some traditional homes sweetmeats of yellowish hues are exchanged with relatives and friends, people wear yellow clothes, offer yellow flowers in worship and put a yellow, turmeric tilak on their forehead. They visit temples and offer prayers to various gods. At home, kesar halva, also yellow in color, is prepared. The yellow flowers of mustard crop covers the entire field in such a way that it seems as if gold is spread over the land glittering with the rays of the sun. Fields of mustard present a colourful sight all over rural Punjab. The Basant fair is held in many villages of the India. People put on yellow costumes appropriate to the season and eat boiled rice dyed in saffron.^[4] Symbolizing greenery and reproduction, the event signifies sprouting of tender leaves and also filled-up granary with the recently-harvested crops.^[5] It is traditional to fly kites on Basant. The phrase "Ayi Basant Pala Udant" (with the onset of spring season, winter bids adieu) holds true at this time of the year.^[5] In Punjab the festival is called Basant Panchami. Kite flying is popular on this day in North India. The days leading to the festival represent busy times for Kite makers for the usually clear blue skies tend to be filled with kites of all colors.

The Goddess of Knowledge, Saraswati, is especially worshipped in Orissa, Bengal and Bihar. In Orissa with the onset of spring Capital city Bhubaneswar gear itself for celebration of the Vasant Panchami. The festival is celebrated with great fervor in the Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Berhampur, and other major cities of the state.

Similarly in West Bengal Saraswati Puja is celebrated on a large scale. Throughout the state, Saraswati Puja is performed in schools, colleges as well as in homes. In all educational institutions, especially in music, arts and crafts institutions, Saraswati Puja is observed with devotion and reverence.

Worship Goddess-Sarasvati[link]

The day of Basant Panchami is dedicated to Goddess Sarasvati. Sarasvati is the goddess of learning who bequeaths the greatest wealth to humanity, the wealth of knowledge. Hindu mythology depicts Sarasvati as a pristine lady bedecked with white attire, white flowers and white pearls, sitting on a white lotus, which blooms in a wide stretch of water. The Goddess also holds Veena, a string-instrument, like Sitar, for playing music. The prayer of Sarasvati finally concludes as, "Oh Mother Sarasvati remove the darkness (ignorance) of my mind and bless me with the eternal knowledge." The mythological history of Sarasvati associates her with the holy rituals performed on the banks of the river Sarasvati. She is worshipped as a goddess of speech, attributed to the formation of (words), invention of Sanskrit language and composition of hymns.^[6] t is customary to begin a child's education on this day. Schools, colleges and other places of learning organize special worship of Saraswati. Many schools and colleges also organize cultural activities. The most significant aspect of this day is that Hindu children are taught reading and writing their first word - as it is considered an auspicious day to begin a child's education. Goddess Saraswati being pure and white and representing learning, no animal sacrifice is made to her. Everyone will have vegetarian meal on this day.

Floral offerings are made in a big scale. Books, articles, instruments of music and arts, earthen inkpots and bamboo quills are placed before her. The ink is made from unboiled milk water, red colour powder and silver glitter called avro. On this day nobody writes or read any books. This signifies that the goddess bless the learners through the books placed in front of her.

Many communities get together and erect special Saraswati Puja sthans for Vasant Panchami. They hold puja and arrange community lunch. Books, musical instruments, and other objects related to the arts and scholarship were placed in front of the goddess to receive her blessings.

Vasanta and Sufi Culture[link]

Sufis are credited for bringing the festival into the Muslim pantheon in the Indian subcontinent. By the Mughal period, Basant was a popular festival at the major Sufi shrines. We have, for example, mentions of Nizam Auliya ki Basant, Khwaja Bakhtiar Kaki ki Basant, Khusrau ki Basant; festivals arranged around the shrines of these various sufi saints. Khusrau, the famous sufi-poet of the thirteenth century, even composed verses on Basant:

Aaj basant manaalay, suhaagan,

Aaj basant manaalay

Anjan manjan kar piya mori, lambay neher lagaalay

Tu kya sovay neend ki maasi,

So jaagay teray bhaag, suhaagun,

Aaj basant manaalay.

Oonchi naar kay oonchay chitvan,

Ayso diyo hai banaaye

Shah Amir tuhay dekhan ko,

nainon say naina milaaye,

Suhaagun, aaj basant manaalay.

Translation:

Celebrate basant today,

O bride, Celebrate Basant today

Apply kajal to your eyes, and decorate your long hair

Oh why are you the servant of sleep?

Even your fate is wide awake,

Celebrate Basant today,

O high lady with high looks,

That is how you were made,

When the king looks at you, your eyes meet his eyes,

O Bride, Celebrate Basant today.

Another historic account is given in the book Punjab Under the Later Mughals. According to this book, when Zakariya Khan (1707–1759) was the governor of Punjab, a Hindu of Sialkot, by the name of Haqeeqat Rai Bakhmal Puri spoke words of disrespect for the Prophet Muhammad and his daughter Fatima due to teasing by Muslim boys. He was arrested and sent to Lahore to await trial. The court, gave him capital punishment. The Hindu population was stirred to request Zakariya Khan to lift the death sentence given to Haqeeqat Rai but he did not accede to their request. Eventually the death penalty was carried out and the entire Hindu population went into mourning.

As a tribute to the memory of this child, a prosperous Hindu, Kalu Ram initiated the Basant 'mela' in (Marrhi) Kot Khwaja Saeed (Khoje Shahi) in Lahore. (This place is now known as Baway di marrhi.) It is the last stop on the route of Wagon no. 60 from Bhati Gate. Dr. B.S. Nijjar states on Page no. 279 of his book that the Basant 'mela' is celebrated in memory of Hakeekat Rai.^[7]

Basant (Jashn-e-Baharaan) in (Pakistan)[link]

The festival is limited in its celebrations in Pakistan. Instead, the celebrations of spring known as 'Jashn-e-baharaan' in Urdu, are carried on in the entire country for almost a month. Basant, in particular, is celebrated in eastern Punjab especially Lahore. Lahore being the historic capital of Punjab celebrates Basant with a lot of vigour and enthusiasm. Although traditionally it was a festival confined to the old-walled city it has spread throughout the city. Other cities in which Basant is mainly celebrated are Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, Karachi, Jhelum, Kasur, Sialkot and Rawalpindi/Islamabad.

Basant is celebrated with great joy in Lahore, as Daily Times, a Pakistani Newspaper states:

"There a lot of rush at kite shops, especially in old Lahore as children and middle-aged men gathered to purchase their favourite coloured kites and string. Rehan, an intermediate student said ...the festival was part of the city’s culture, adding that a number of special dishes were also prepared for the occasion. He said this year, however, people would only be flying kites. Arsalan, a resident of the Walled City, said Basant was the event of colours and lights, adding that a number of people in his area had installed lights at their residences. He said “the dance of kites in lights” would be visible to everyone who would look up at the sky".^[8]

It was for many years officially backed by the government and sponsored by multinational corporations. Although Basant is celebrated throughout Pakistani Punjab, it is Lahore which made it popular not only in Pakistan but all over the world as the largest kite festival. Over the years, the Basant festival has drawn thousands of revellers to Lahore from all over the world. Even Indian movie stars had started participating in the festival which peaks with an all-night flood-lit kite flying marathon on the eve of the festival. However, there are accidents and even deaths during the festival each year because of the public's ignorance towards the use of banned strings and also gunfire.

2005 Restrictions in Pakistan[link]

The ban follows a number of deaths in recent days, mostly in the provincial capital Lahore, caused by glass-coated or metal kite-strings. Families of the victims protested, demanding that a Supreme Court ban on the sport be re-enforced. The spring festival known as Basant is hugely popular across Punjab. "We cannot allow people to play with the lives of ordinary citizens in the name of sport," a statement issued from the Punjab chief minister's office said.

A new twist was added to their protest this year when some members of the hardline extremist Muslim Jamaat-e-Islami party declared that the festival was initiated in the memory of a Haqiqat Rai who was hanged for blaspheming against the Muslim prophet Muhammad.^[9] Moderate Muslims see Basant simply as a spring festival, and point out that even Allama Iqbal used to fly kites and enjoy the festival.^[10]

In 2005, an advocate, MD Tahir of Lahore High Court, Pakistan, contended that many dangers, including the kite strings and power breakdowns, resulted from kite flying. As a result, in 2005, kite flying was banned in Pakistan. Violent protests occurred outside the Pakistani Supreme Court house.^[11]

Despite the ban on kite flying one can see hundreds of kites every afternoon and evening on Lahore's sky and the number of kites is even higher on Sundays and public holidays. Kite flyers compete to cut each other's kites loose. In the past strings were coated with a slurry of fine glass shards which allowed one flyer to cut another's kite lose. In small villages the custom of 'kite running' allows poorer children to chase down and claim the free flying kites. Today wire coated with glass has become very popular with such strands of wire, though they have killed more than nine people in 2009. The Lahore High Court hoped the government would not lift the ban.^[11]

See also[link]

• Culture of India

References[link]

External links[link]

• Spring Festival of South Asia
• Kites of Blasphemy: An Islamic perspective on Basant
• ThingsAsian.com: Pakistan's Basant Festival
• CNN.com - Kite ban sparks violent protests - Dec 9, 2005
• Basant
• Basant 2007 in Lahore

Kishori Amonkar^N-[1] (Marathi: किशोरी आमोणकर) (born 1932) is an Indian singer who performs in the classical genre khyal and the light classical genres thumri and bhajan. Amonkar trained under her mother, classical singer Mogubai Kurdikar of the Jaipur gharana (musical tradition of Jaipur), but experimented with a variety of vocal styles in her career. She is considered one of the preeminent representatives of Hindustani classical music.^[2]

Life and career[link]

In the early 1940s, Amonkar began to receive vocal lessons in Hindustani classical music from her mother Mogubai Kurdikar and later received training from tutors of several gharanas.^[3] Amonkar became interested in film music and sang playback for the 1964 movie Geet Gaya Patharon Ne, but returned to classical music because of bad experiences in the movie industry.^[3] Amonkar lost her voice for two years in the late 1950s for unknown reasons.^[4] She sang for the 1990 Hindi film Drishti.

Amonkar's work in light music has informed her classical singing and she modified her Jaipur gharana performance style by applying features from other gharanas.^[5] She has created many compositions for a number of ragas.^[6] Amonkar's students include Manik Bhide, Meena Joshi, Suhasini Mulgaonkar, Mira Panshikar, and her granddaughter Tejashree Amonkar.^[7][8]

Kishori Amonkar has two sons with her husband Ravindra Amonkar.^[9] She is sometimes described as "temperamental".^[8] Amonkar lives in Mumbai.^[4]

Recognition[link]

Amonkar received the national awards Padma Bhushan in 1987 and Padma Vibhushan in 2002.^[10] She was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 1985 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for 2009.^[11][12]

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

External videos
	Art Talk with Kishori Amonkar on NewsX

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Kishori Amonkar

• Kishori Amonkar at Allmusic

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
Background information
Born	(1922-04-14)April 14, 1922
Origin	Comilla, East Bengal, British India
Died	June 18, 2009(2009-06-18) (aged 87) San Anselmo, California, United States
Genres	Indian classical music
Occupations	Composer, Sarodiya
Instruments	Sarod
Associated acts	Allauddin Khan, Aashish Khan, Ravi Shankar

Ali Akbar Khan (Bengali: আলী আকবর খাঁ) (14 April 1922 – 18 June 2009), often referred to as Khansahib or by the title Ustad (master), was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Khan was instrumental in popularizing Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer (often in conjunction with Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar), and as a teacher. He established a music school in Calcutta in 1956, and the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967, which is now located in San Rafael, California and has a branch in Basel, Switzerland. Khan also composed several classical ragas and filmscores.^[1] He was a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Music^[2] at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Trained as a musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, Khan first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and later settled in California.^[3] Khan was nominated for five Grammy Awards and was accorded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1989.^[4] He has also won a MacArthur Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts's National Heritage Fellowship.

Childhood and training[link]

Ali Akbar Khan was born in the village of Shibpur, Comilla, in present-day Bangladesh (then East Bengal), to renowned musician and teacher, Allauddin Khan and Madina Begum.^[5] Soon after his birth, Khan's family returned to Maihar (in present day Madhya Pradesh, India) where his father was the primary court musician for the Maharaja of the princely state.^[6]

From an early age Khan received training from his father in various instruments as well as vocal composition, but finally gravitated towards the sarod. Allauddin was a perfectionist and a strict taskmaster, and Khan's lessons started before dawn and often lasted 18 hours a day.^[7] Khan also learned to play the tabla and the pakhavaj from his uncle, Aftabuddin Khan, who he visited at Shibpur.^[8] During this period he met several prominent musicians, such as the sarodist Timir Baran and flutist Pannalal Ghosh, who came to study with his father; in later years he was joined in his lessons by his sister Annapurna Devi, who became an accomplished player of the surbahar, and fellow student Ravi Shankar. Shankar and Annapurna Devi were married in 1941.^[6]

Of his training on the sarod, he wrote:

If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist—then you may please even God.^[9]

Career[link]

Ali Akbar Khan, after years of rigorous training gave his debut performance at a music conference in Allahabad in 1936, at the age of 13. Three years later, in December 1939, he accompanied Ravi Shankar on the sarod during the latter's debut performance at the same conference; this was the first of many jugalbandis (duets) between the two musicians. In 1938 Khan gave his first recital on All India Radio (AIR), Bombay (accompanied on the tabla by Alla Rakha), and starting in January 1940, he gave monthly performances on AIR, Lucknow. Finally in 1944, both Shankar and Khan left Maihar to start their professional careers as musicians; Shankar went to Bombay, while Khan became the youngest Music Director for AIR, Lucknow and was responsible for solo performances and composing for the radio orchestra.^[7]

In 1943, on his father's recommendation, Khan was appointed a court musician for the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Hanwant Singh.^[10] There, he taught and composed music besides giving recitals and was accorded the title of Ustad by the Maharaja. When the princely states were wound down with India's independence in 1947 and Hanwant Singh died in a plane crash in 1948, Khan moved to Bombay.^[7]

In Bombay, he won acclaim as a composer of several film scores, including Chetan Anand's Aandhiyan, Satyajit Ray's Devi, Merchant-Ivory's The Householder, and Tapan Sinha's Kshudhita Pashan ("Hungry stones"), for which he won the "Best Musician of the Year" award. He also played Sarod for a song in 1955 film Seema which had the music composed by Shankar Jaikishan. Later in 1993, he would score some of the music for Bernardo Bertolucci Little Buddha.^[11]

Beginning in 1945, Khan also started recording a series of 78 rpm disks (which could record about three minutes of music) at the HMV Studios in Bombay. For one such record he conceived a new composition Raga Chandranandan ("moonstruck"), based on four evening ragas, Malkauns, Chandrakauns, Nandakauns and Kaushi Kanada. This record was a huge success in India, and the raga found a worldwide audience when a 22-minute rendition was re-recorded for the Master Musician of India LP in 1965 − one of Khan's seminal recordings.^[12]

He performed in India and traveled extensively in the West. In 1956, Khan founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta, with the mission to teach and spread Indian classical music. He founded another school of the same name in Berkeley, California in 1967 and later moved it to San Rafael, California.^[10] Khan performed in Boston with Shankar Ghosh in 1969 for the Peabody Mason Concert series. In 1985 he founded another branch of the Ali Akbar College of Music in Basel, Switzerland. Khan was the first Indian musician to record an LP album of Indian classical music in the United States and to play sarod on American television.^[13]

Khan has participated in a number of classic jugalbandi pairings, most notably with Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee and violinist L. Subramaniam. A few recordings of duets with Vilayat Khan also exist. He also collaborated with Western musicians. In August 1971, Khan performed at Madison Square Garden for the Concert for Bangladesh, along with Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha and Kamala Chakravarty; other musicians at the concert included George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr. A live album and a movie of the event were later released.^[1][10]

Khan was based in the United States for the last four decades of his life. He toured extensively until he was prevented from doing so by ill-health in the period prior to his death from renal failure.

Personal life[link]

Ali Akbar Khan married three times, and is survived by seven sons and four daughters. His eldest son, Aashish Khan is also a renowned sarod player.^[1]

Awards[link]

Khan was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1989,^[14] among other awards. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1991.^[10] In 1997, Khan received the National Endowment for the Arts' prestigious National Heritage Fellowship, the United States' highest honour in the traditional arts. Khan has received two Grammy nominations.^[15]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Lavezzoli, Peter (2006). The dawn of Indian music in the West: Bhairavi. London: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-1815-5. 
• Massey, Reginald (1996). The music of India. Abhinav Publications. ISBN 81-7017-332-9. 

External links[link]

• Ali Akbar College of Music
• Ali Akbar Khan at Allmusic
• Ali Akbar Khan at the Internet Movie Database

Amir Akbar Khan امير اکبر خان
Emir of Afghanistan
Amir Akbar Khan امير اکبر خان
Reign	1842–1845
Titles	Ghazi, Wazir, Prince, General and Tribal leader
Born	1816
Died	1845
Place of death	Jalalabad, Afghanistan
Buried	Blue Mosque, Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan
Predecessor	Shuja Shah Durrani
Successor	Amir Dost Mohammad Khan
Royal House	Barakzai dynasty
Father	Amir Dost Mohammad Khan
Mother	Mirmon Khadija Popalzai
Religious beliefs	Sunni Islam

Wazir Akbar Khan on Afghan stamps of 1976.

Amir Akbar Khan (1816–1845;Pashto: امير اکبر خان, born as Mohammad Akbar Khan (Pashto: محمد اکبر خان) and famously known as Wazir Akbar Khan, was an Afghan Prince, a general, a tribal leader and Emir. He was active in the First Anglo-Afghan War, which lasted from 1839 to 1842. He is prominent for his leadership of the national party in Kabul from 1841 to 1842, and his pursuit of the retreating British army from Kabul to Gandamak near Jalalabad in 1842. In 1837 in the battle of Jamrud he killed sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa in a planned tyrantical way by conspiring whilst trying to get back the city of Peshawar for the Afghans from the Sikh army, but Akbar Khan failed to do so.

Early life[link]

Amir Akbar Khan was born in the year 1816 as Mohammad Akbar Khan, as the son of Amir Dost Mohammad Khan of Afghanistan and to his fifth wife Mirmon Khadija Popalzai. Amir Dost Mohammad Khan had totally 2 wives, 8 sons (including Amir Akbar Khan) and 2 daughters.^[1]

Adult life[link]

He led a revolt in Kabul against the British Indian mission of William McNaughten, Alexander Burnes and their garrison of 4,500 men. In November 1841, he besieged Major-General William Elphinstone's force in Kabul. Elphinstone accepted a safe-conduct for his force and about 12,000 associated workers to flee to India; they were ambushed and massacred. It was claimed in at least one set of British war memoirs that, during the retreat, Akbar Khan could be heard alternately commanding his men, in Persian language to desist from, and in Pashto language to continue, firing.^[2]

Historians think it unlikely that Akbar Khan wished for the total annihilation of the British force. An astute man politically, he would have been aware that allowing the British to extricate themselves from Afghanistan would give him the time to consolidate his control of the diverse hill tribes; whereas a massacre of 16,500 people, of which only about a quarter were a fighting force, would not be tolerated back in London and would result in another, larger army sent to exact retribution. This was in fact what happened the following year.

Many believe that Akbar Khan was poisoned by his father, Dost Mohammed, who feared his ambitions.^[3]

In fiction[link]

This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (May 2012)

The historical figure of Akbar Khan plays a major role in George MacDonald Fraser's novel Flashman. No factual reference base for killing of Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa, however the Peshwar Gazzette of 1897 clearly shows that gulab singh Hindu dogra, forgave the tax owed by yar Mohamed barukzai which sardar hari singh had originally come to collect, it is also written by a kin of the dogras that hari singh stood in the way of dogra ruling dream so while during chase of the retreating armies of Kabul he was shot in the back fact by gulab singh's man, another fact the Afghans in the siege were repulsed and unsuccessful.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mohammad Akbar Khan

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محمد اکبر خان

Ravi Shankar
Shankar performs in Delhi in March 2009
Background information
Birth name	Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury
Born	(1920-04-07) 7 April 1920 (age 92) Varanasi, United Provinces, Indian Empire
Genres	Hindustani classical music
Occupations	composer, musician
Instruments	sitar
Years active	1939–present
Associated acts	Uday Shankar, Allauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Lakshmi Shankar, Yehudi Menuhin, Chatur Lal, Alla Rakha, George Harrison, Anoushka Shankar, Beatles
Website	RaviShankar.org

Ravi Shankar (Bengali: রবি শংকর; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury on 7 April 1920), often referred to with the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the most known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.^[1]

Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956.

In 1956, he began to tour Europe and America playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison of The Beatles. Shankar engaged Western music by writing concerti for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999, and received three Grammy Awards. He continues to perform in the 2000s, often with his daughter Anoushka.

Early life[link]

Shankar was born 7 April 1920 in Varanasi to a Bengali Brahmin family as the youngest of seven brothers.^[2][3][4] Shankar's Bengali birth name was Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury.^[2] His father, Shyam Shankar, an administrator for the Maharaja of Jhalawar, used the Sanskrit spelling of the family name and removed its last part.^[2][5] Shyam was married to Shankar's mother Hemangini Devi, but later worked as a lawyer in London.^[2] There he married a second time while Devi raised Shankar in Varanasi, and did not meet his son until he was eight years old.^[2] Shankar shortened the Sanskrit version of his first name, Ravindra, to Ravi, for "sun".^[2]

At the age of ten, after spending his first decade in Varanasi, Shankar went to Paris with the dance group of his brother, choreographer Uday Shankar.^[6][7] By the age of 13 he had become a member of the group, accompanied its members on tour and learned to dance and play various Indian instruments.^[3][4] Uday's dance group toured Europe and America in the early to mid-1930s and Shankar learned French, discovered Western classical music, jazz, and cinema, and became acquainted with Western customs.^[8] Shankar heard the lead musician for the Maihar court, Allauddin Khan, in December 1934 at a music conference in Kolkata and Uday convinced the Maharaja of Maihar in 1935 to allow Khan to become his group's soloist for a tour of Europe.^[8] Shankar was sporadically trained by Khan on tour, and Khan offered Shankar training to become a serious musician under the condition that he abandon touring and come to Maihar.^[8]

Career[link]

Training and work in India[link]

Shankar's parents had died by the time he returned from the European tour, and touring the West had become difficult due to political conflicts that would lead to World War II.^[9] Shankar gave up his dancing career in 1938 to go to Maihar and study Indian classical music as Khan's pupil, living with his family in the traditional gurukul system.^[6] Khan was a rigorous teacher and Shankar had training on sitar and surbahar, learned ragas and the musical styles dhrupad, dhamar, and khyal, and was taught the techniques of the instruments rudra veena, rubab, and sursingar.^[6][10] He often studied with Khan's children Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi.^[9] Shankar began to perform publicly on sitar in December 1939 and his debut performance was a jugalbandi (duet) with Ali Akbar Khan, who played the string instrument sarod.^[11]

Shankar completed his training in 1944.^[3] Following his training, he moved to Mumbai and joined the Indian People's Theatre Association, for whom he composed music for ballets in 1945 and 1946.^[3][12] Shankar recomposed the music for the popular song "Sare Jahan Se Achcha" at the age of 25.^[13][14] He began to record music for HMV India and worked as a music director for All India Radio (AIR), New Delhi, from February 1949 to January 1956.^[3] Shankar founded the Indian National Orchestra at AIR and composed for it; his compositions experimented with a combination of Western instruments and classical Indian instrumentation.^[15] Beginning in the mid-1950s he composed the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, which became internationally acclaimed.^[4][16]

International career 1956–1969[link]

Tabla player Alla Rakha, who was a frequent accompanist of Shankar, in 1988

V. K. Narayana Menon, director of AIR Delhi, introduced the Western violinist Yehudi Menuhin to Shankar during Menuhin's first visit to India in 1952.^[17] Shankar had performed as part of a cultural delegation in the Soviet Union in 1954 and Menuhin invited Shankar in 1955 to perform in New York City for a demonstration of Indian classical music, sponsored by the Ford Foundation.^[18][19] Shankar declined to attend due to problems in his marriage, but recommended Ali Akbar Khan to play instead.^[19] Khan reluctantly accepted and performed with tabla (percussion) player Chatur Lal in the Museum of Modern Art, and he later became the first Indian classical musician to perform on American television and record a full raga performance, for Angel Records.^[20]

Shankar heard about the positive response Khan received and resigned from AIR in 1956 to tour the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States.^[21] He played for smaller audiences and educated them about Indian music, incorporating ragas from the South Indian Carnatic music in his performances, and recorded his first LP album Three Ragas in London, released in 1956.^[21] In 1958, Shankar participated in the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the United Nations and UNESCO music festival in Paris.^[12] From 1961, he toured Europe, the United States, and Australia, and became the first Indian to compose music for non-Indian films.^[12] Chatur Lal accompanied Shankar on tabla until 1962, when Alla Rakha assumed the role.^[21] Shankar founded the Kinnara School of Music in Mumbai in 1962.^[22]

Shankar befriended Richard Bock, founder of World Pacific Records, on his first American tour and recorded most of his albums in the 1950s and 1960s for Bock's label.^[21] The Byrds recorded at the same studio and heard Shankar's music, which led them to incorporate some of its elements in theirs, introducing the genre to their friend George Harrison of The Beatles.^[23] Harrison became interested in Indian classical music, bought a sitar and used it to record the song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".^[24] This led to Indian music being used by other musicians and created the raga rock trend.^[24]

Harrison met Shankar in London in 1966 and visited India for six weeks to study sitar under Shankar in Srinagar.^[14][25][26] During the visit, a documentary film about Shankar named Raga was shot by Howard Worth, and released in 1971.^[27] Shankar's association with Harrison greatly increased Shankar's popularity and Ken Hunt of Allmusic would state that Shankar had become "the most famous Indian musician on the planet" by 1966.^[3][25] In 1967, he performed at the Monterey Pop Festival and won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance for West Meets East, a collaboration with Yehudi Menuhin.^[25][28] The same year, the Beatles won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which included "Within You Without You" by Harrison, a song that was influenced by Indian classical music.^[26][28] Shankar opened a Western branch of the Kinnara School of Music in Los Angeles, California, in May 1967, and published an autobiography, My Music, My Life, in 1968.^[12][22] He performed at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, and found he disliked the venue.^[25] In the 1970s Shankar distanced himself from the hippie movement.^[29]

International career 1970–present[link]

George Harrison, U.S. President Gerald Ford, and Ravi Shankar in the Oval Office in December 1974

In October 1970 Shankar became chair of the department of Indian music of the California Institute of the Arts after previously teaching at the City College of New York, the University of California, Los Angeles, and being guest lecturer at other colleges and universities, including the Ali Akbar College of Music.^[12][30][31] In late 1970, the London Symphony Orchestra invited Shankar to compose a concerto with sitar; Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra was performed with André Previn as conductor and Shankar playing the sitar.^[4][32] Hans Neuhoff of Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart has criticized the usage of the orchestra in this concert as "amateurish".^[1] George Harrison organized the charity Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971, in which Shankar participated.^[25] Interest in Indian music had decreased in the early 1970s, but the concert album became one of the best-selling recordings featuring it and won Shankar a second Grammy Award.^[28][31]

During the 1970s, Shankar and Harrison worked together again, recording Shankar Family & Friends in 1973 and touring North America the following year to a mixed response after Shankar had toured Europe with the Harrison-sponsored Music Festival from India.^[33] The demanding schedule weakened Shankar, and he suffered a heart attack in Chicago in November 1974, causing him to miss a portion of the tour.^[34] In his absence, Shankar's sister-in-law, singer Lakshmi Shankar, conducted the touring orchestra.^[34] The touring band visited the White House on invitation of John Gardner Ford, son of U.S. President Gerald Ford.^[34] Shankar toured and taught for the remainder of the 1970s and the 1980s and released his second concerto, Raga Mala, conducted by Zubin Mehta, in 1981.^[35][36] Shankar was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score for his work on the 1982 movie Gandhi, but lost to John Williams' E.T.^[37] He served as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India, from 12 May 1986 to 11 May 1992, after being nominated by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.^[14][38] Shankar composed the dance drama Ghanashyam in 1989.^[22] His liberal views on musical cooperation led him to collaboration with contemporary composer Philip Glass, with whom he released an album, Passages, in 1990.^[6]

Shankar underwent an angioplasty in 1992 due to heart problems, after which George Harrison involved himself in several of Shankar's projects.^[39] Because of the positive response to Shankar's 1996 career compilation In Celebration, Shankar wrote a second autobiography, Raga Mala, with Harrison as editor.^[39] He performed in between 25 and 40 concerts every year during the late 1990s.^[6] Shankar taught his daughter Anoushka Shankar to play sitar and in 1997 became a Regent's Lecturer at University of California, San Diego.^[40] In the 2000s, he won a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000 and toured with Anoushka, who released a book about her father, Bapi: Love of My Life, in 2002.^[28][41] Anoushka performed a composition by Shankar for the 2002 Harrison memorial Concert for George and Shankar wrote a third concerto for sitar and orchestra for Anoushka and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.^[42][43] In June 2008, Shankar played what was billed as his last European concert,^[29] but his 2011 tour includes dates in the United Kingdom.^[44]

Style and contributions[link]

Shankar plays the raga Madhuvanti at the Shiraz Arts Festival in Iran in the 1970s

Shankar developed a style distinct from that of his contemporaries and incorporated influences from rhythm practices of Carnatic music.^[6] His performances begin with solo alap, jor, and jhala (introduction and performances with pulse and rapid pulse) influenced by the slow and serious dhrupad genre, followed by a section with tabla accompaniment featuring compositions associated with the prevalent khyal style.^[6] Shankar often closes his performances with a piece inspired by the light-classical thumri genre.^[6]

Shankar has been considered one of the top sitar players of the second half of the 20th century.^[1] He popularized performing on the bass octave of the sitar for the alap section and became known for a distinctive playing style in the middle and high registers that uses quick and short deviations of the playing string and his sound creation through stops and strikes on the main playing string.^[1][6] Narayana Menon of The New Grove Dictionary noted Shankar's liking for rhythmic novelties, among them the use of unconventional rhythmic cycles.^[45] Hans Neuhoff of Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart has argued that Shankar's playing style was not widely adopted and that he was surpassed by other sitar players in the performance of melodic passages.^[1] Shankar's interplay with Alla Rakha improved appreciation for tabla playing in Hindustani classical music.^[1] Shankar promoted the jugalbandi duet concert style and introduced new ragas, including Tilak Shyam, Nat Bhairav and Bairagi.^[6]

Recognition[link]

Shankar won the Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of the Jury at the 1957 Berlin International Film Festival for composing the music for the movie Kabuliwala.^[46] He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 1962,^[47] and was named a Fellow of the academy for 1975.^[48] Shankar was awarded the three highest national civil honors of India: Padma Bhushan, in 1967, Padma Vibhushan, in 1981, and Bharat Ratna, in 1999.^[49] He received the music award of the UNESCO International Music Council in 1975, three Grammy Awards, and was nominated for an Academy Award.^[12][28][37] Shankar was awarded honorary degrees from universities in India and the United States.^[12] He received the Kalidas Samman from the Government of Madhya Pradesh for 1987–88, the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 1991, the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1992, and the Polar Music Prize in 1998.^{[50][51][52][53]} In 2001, Shankar was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Elizabeth II for his "services to music".^[54] Shankar is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1997 received the Praemium Imperiale for music from the Japan Art Association.^[6] The American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane named his son Ravi Coltrane after Shankar.^[55]

Personal life and family[link]

Shankar in 1988

Shankar married Allauddin Khan's daughter Annapurna Devi in 1941 and a son, Shubhendra Shankar, was born in 1942.^[10] Shankar separated from Devi during the 1940s and had a relationship with Kamala Shastri, a dancer, beginning in the late 1940s.^[56] An affair with Sue Jones, a New York concert producer, led to the birth of Norah Jones in 1979.^[56] In 1981, Anoushka Shankar was born to Shankar and Sukanya Rajan, whom Shankar had known since the 1970s.^[56] After separating from Kamala Shastri in 1981, Shankar lived with Sue Jones until 1986. He married Sukanya Rajan in 1989.^[56]

Shubhendra "Shubho" Shankar often accompanied his father on tours.^[57] He could play the sitar and surbahar, but elected not to pursue a solo career and died in 1992.^[57] Norah Jones became a successful musician in the 2000s, winning eight Grammy Awards in 2003.^[58] Anoushka Shankar was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2003.^[58]

Shankar is a Hindu and a vegetarian.^[59][60] He lives with Sukanya in Encinitas, California.^[61]

Discography[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Shankar, Ravi (1968). My Music, My Life. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-20113-1. 
• Shankar, Ravi (1979). Learning Indian Music: A Systematic Approach. Onomatopoeia. OCLC 21376688. 
• Shankar, Ravi (1997). Raga Mala: The Autobiography of Ravi Shankar. Genesis Publications. ISBN 0-904351-46-7. 

Notes[link]