A raga (Sanskrit rāga राग, Tamil rāgam ராகம், Kannada "Raaga" ರಾಗ, Malayalam rāgam രാഗം literally "colour, hue" but also "beauty, melody"; also spelled raag, raaga, ragam)^[1] is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.

A raga uses a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is constructed. However, it is important to remember that the way the notes are approached and rendered in musical phrases and the mood they convey are more important in defining a raga than the notes themselves. In the Indian musical tradition, rāgas are associated with different times of the day, or with seasons. Indian classical music is always set in a rāga. Non-classical music such as popular Indian film songs and ghazals sometimes use rāgas in their compositions.

Joep Bor of the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music defined Raga as "tonal framework for composition and improvisation."^[2] Nazir Jairazbhoy, chairman of UCLA's department of ethnomusicology, characterized ragas as separated by scale, line of ascent and descent, transilience, emphasized notes and register, and intonation and ornaments.^[3]

Terminology[link]

Look up राग in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up raga in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The Sanskrit word rāga is defined as 'the act of colouring or dyeing' (the mind and mood/emotions in this context) and therefore metaphorically means 'any feeling or passion especially love, affection, sympathy, desire, interest, motivation, joy, or delight.' Therefore, the word is used in the literal sense of 'the act of dyeing,' and also 'color, hue, tint,' especially the color red in the Sanskrit epics, and in the figurative sense of 'something that colors one's emotions.' A figurative sense of the word as 'passion, love, desire, delight' is also found in the Mahabharata. The specialized sense of 'loveliness, beauty,' especially of voice or song, emerges in Classical Sanskrit, used by Kalidasa and in the Panchatantra.^[4]

The term first occurs in a technical context in the Brihaddeshi (dated ca. 5th to 8th century),^[5] where it is described as "a combination of tones which, with beautiful illuminating graces, pleases the people in general".

Rāginī (Devanagari: रागिनी) is a term for the "feminine" counterpart or "wife" to a rāga. The rāga-rāgini scheme from about the 14th century aligned 6 "male" rāgas with 6 "wives."

Nature of rāga[link]

Raga Shree recital to Krishna and Radha, Ragamala paintings, 19th century

योऽसौ ध्वनिविशेषस्तु स्वरवर्णविभूषितः ।

रञ्जको जनचित्तानां स च राग उदाहृतः ।।

"That which is a special dhwani (tune), is bedecked with swara (notes) and varna and is colorful or delightful to the minds of the people, is said to be rāga" - Matanga in the Brihaddeshi.

The basic mode of reference in modern Hindustani practice (known commonly as the shuddha - basic - form) is a set which is equivalent to the Western Ionian mode (the major scale) — this is called Bilawal thaat in Hindustani music (the Carnatic analogue would be Sankarabharanam). In both systems, the ground (or tonic), Shadja, Sa, and a pure fifth above, Pancham, Pa, are fixed and essentially sacrosanct tones. In the Hindustani system, in a given seven-tone mode, the second, third, sixth, and seventh notes can be natural (shuddha, lit. 'pure') or flat (komal, 'soft') but never sharp, and the fourth note can be natural or sharp (tivra) but never flat, making up the twelve notes in the Western equal tempered chromatic scale (Western enharmonic pitch equivalences like, for example, A♯ and B♭ do not apply; e.g. Re tivra may, to a Western musician appear enharmonic to Ga shuddha in that system, but in practice is not.) A Western-style C chromatic scale could therefore theoretically have the notes C, D♭, D, E♭, E, F, F♯, G, A♭, A, B♭, B.

The Carnatic system has three versions — a lower, medium, and higher form — of all the notes except Sa, Ma and Pa. Ma has two versions (lower and higher), while Sa and Pa are invariant. Rāgas can also specify microtonal changes to this scale: a flatter second, a sharper seventh, and so forth. Tradition has it that the octave consists of (a division into) 22 microtones ("shrutis"). Furthermore, individual performers treat pitches quite differently, and the precise intonation of a given note depends on melodic context. There is no absolute pitch (such as the modern western standard A = 440 Hz); instead, each performance simply picks a ground note, which also serves as the drone, and the other scale degrees follow relative to the ground note. The Carnatic system embarks from a much different shuddha (fundamental) scalar formation, that is, shuddha here is the lowest-pitched swara.

By comparison, using the common tonic "C" for a western musician:

Rāgas and their seasons[link]

Vasant Ragini, Ragamala, Rajput, Kota, Rajasthan. 1770. Vasant is the raga of spring. The painting depicts Hindu god Krishna dancing with maidens.

Many Hindustani (North Indian) rāgas are prescribed for the particular time of a day or a season. When performed at the suggested time, the rāga has its maximum effect. For example, many of the Malhar group of rāgas, which are ascribed the magical power to bring rain, are performed during the monsoon. However, these prescriptions are not strictly followed, especially since modern concerts are generally held in the evening. There has also been a growing tendency over the last century for North Indian musicians to adopt South Indian rāgas, which do not come with any particular time associated with them. The result of these various influences is that there is increasing flexibility as to when rāgas may be performed.

Notations[link]

Although notes are an important part of rāga practice, they alone do not make the rāga. A rāga is more than a scale, and many rāgas share the same scale. The underlying scale may have five, six or seven tones made up of swaras. Rāgas that have five swaras are called audava (औडव) rāgas; those with six, shaadava (षाडव); and with seven, sampurna (संपूर्ण, Sanskrit for 'complete'). Those rāgas that do not follow the strict ascending or descending order of swaras are called vakra (वक्र) ('crooked') rāgas.

The mood of the rāga and the way the notes are approached and used are more important than the notes it uses. For example, Darbari Kanada and Jaunpuri share the same notes but are entirely different in their renderings. Similarly, although Bilaskhani Todi is classified under the Bhairavi thaat because of the notes it uses, it is actually closer to Todi than to Bhairavi.

Northern and southern differences[link]

The two streams of Indian classical music, Carnatic music and Hindustani music, have independent sets of rāgas. There is some overlap, but more "false friendship" (where rāga names overlap, but rāga form does not). In north India, the rāgas have been categorised into ten thaats or parent scales (by Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, 1860-1936); South India uses an older, more systematic classification scheme called the melakarta classification, with 72 parent (melakarta) rāgas. Overall there is a greater identification of rāga with scale in the south than in the north, where such an identification is impossible. Rāgas in north Indian music system follow the 'law of consonances' established by Bharata in his Natyashastra, which does not tolerate deviation even at the shruti level.

As rāgas were transmitted orally from teacher to student, some rāgas can vary greatly across regions, traditions and styles. Many ragas have also been evolving over the centuries. There have been efforts to codify and standardise rāga performance in theory from their first mention in Matanga's Brihaddeshi (c. tenth century).

Carnatic rāga[link]

In Carnatic music, rāgas are classified as Janaka rāgas and Janya rāgas. Janaka rāgas are the rāgas from which the Janya rāgas are created. Janaka rāgas are grouped together using a scheme called Katapayadi sutra and are organised as Melakarta rāgas. A Melakarta rāga is one which has all seven notes in both the ārōhanam (ascending scale) and avarōhanam (descending scale). Some Melakarta rāgas are Harikambhoji, Kalyani, Kharaharapriya, Mayamalavagowla, Sankarabharanam and Todi.

Janya rāgas are derived from the Janaka rāgas using a combination of the swarams (usually a subset of swarams) from the parent rāga. Some janya rāgas are Abheri, Abhogi, Bhairavi, Hindolam, Mohanam and Kambhoji. See the full List of Janya Ragas for more.

Each rāga has a definite collection and orders of swaras (the basic notes). In Carnatic music, there are 7 basic notes of which there are a total of 16 varieties. The seven basic swarams of Carnatic music are: Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ni.

Related rāgas[link]

Even though Janya rāgas are subsets of Janaka rāgas in notation and representation, the differences between the child ragas are clear due to the differences like

• some notes that figure more in a particular rāga compared to another, while other notes used sparingly
• some notes may be sung with gamaka, stress, elongation, etc., in one rāga compared to other
• specific phrases used and other phrases to be avoided in a rāga (so as to avoid deviation into another rāga's domain)
• the scales of some ragas may contain at least one swara that does not figure in their janaka ragas. Such ragas are termed as bhashanga ragas. Ragas such as Bhairavi, Kambhoji, Bilahari, Devagandhari, and Neelambari fall under this category.
• An important fact to be noted is to never sing Bhairavi and Kharaharapriya together, since, the prayogas while singing aalapana are almost the same, with the Suddha dha of Bhairavi being the only difference between the two.

The effect of the rāgas are different from each other, even if they notationally use same swarams (or subset of swarams between each other) due to above subjective differences related to bhava and rasa (mood caused in the listener). The artists have to ensure the same when elaborating on a rāga, as has been followed and expected on each rāga, without digressing into the phrases of another related rāga.

Rāga-rāgini[link]

Basohli painting of Ragaputra Velavala, son of the raga Bhairava.

The rāga-rāgini scheme is a classification scheme used from the 14th century to the 19th century. It usually consists of 6 'male' rāgas each with 6 'wives' (rāginis) and a number of sons (putras) and even 'daughters-in-law'. As it did not agree with various other schemes, and the 'related' rāgas had very little or no similarity, the rāga-rāgini scheme is no longer very popular.^[6]

Rāgas and rāginis were often pictured as Hindu gods, Rajput princes and aristocratic women in an eternal cycle of love, longing and fulfilment.^[6]

See also[link]

Indian classical music portal

• Arabic maqam
• Echos
• List of rāgas
• Makam
• Melody type
• Muqam
• Nava rasas
• Rāga, a documentary about the life and music of Ravi Shankar
• Raga rock

References[link]

Literature[link]

• Bhatkhande, Vishnu Narayan (1968-73), Kramika Pustaka Malika, Hathras: Sangeet Karyalaya .
• Bor, Joep (1999), The Rāga Guide, Charlottesville,Virginia: Nimbus Records 
• Daniélou, Alain (1949), Northern Indian Music, Calcutta: Visva Bharati 
• Jairazbhoy, N.A. (1995), The Rags of North Indian Music: Their Structure & Evolution, Bombay: Popular Prakashan 
• Kaufmann, Walter (1968), The Ragas of North India, Calcutta: Oxford & IBH Publishing Company 

• Moutal, Patrick (1991), Hindustani Raga Index 

• Moutal, Patrick (1991), A Comparative Study of Selected Hindustani Ragas 

Some Ragamala paintings can be found in:

• Bautze, J (1987), Indian Miniature Paintings c:1590 to c. 1850, Amsterdam: Galerie Saundarya Lahari, ISBN 90-72085-01-9 
• Gangoly, O.C. (1934), Rāgas and Rāginis, Calcutta 

• • Ragas and raginis by Amiyanath Sanyal (English) ORIENT LONGMANS 1959 printed by S.C.Ghosh, Calcutta Press, Wellington Squate, Calcutta (Link: www.dli.ernet.in)
  • Sangita Ratnakara of Sarangadeva (Raga Adyaya) ( -do- )

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Raga

• A step-by-step introduction to the concept of raga for beginners
• Rajan Parrikar Music Archive - detailed analyses of ragas backed by rare audio recordings
• Comprehensive reference on raagas
• Krsna Kirtana Songs Ragamala — an informative database with over ninety rāgas (audio clips coming soon), tutorial on the North Indian notation system, rāga classification, and explanation of how rāgas work.
• Hindustani Raga Sangeet Online A rare collection of audio & video archives from 1902. Radio programs dedicated to famous ragas.
• Online quick reference of rāgams in Carnatic music.
• Basics of Hindustani Classical Music for Listeners: a downloadable PDF, and an online video talk. Includes "What is a Raga"?

v t e Hindustani Classical Music Concepts Swara · Tala · Laya · Raag · Shruti · Bandish · Alankar · Riyaz · Gharana Instruments Sitar · Sarod · Veena · Bansuri · Santoor · Shehnai · Harmonium · Sarangi · Tanpura · Tabla · Violin · Pakhawaj Genres Dhrupad · Dhamar · Khyal · Tarana · Sadra Semi-Classical Genres Thumri · Dadra · Tappa · Kajri · Chaiti · Sawani · Hori · Bhajan · Abhang · Natyageet · Qawwali · Ghazal Thaats Bilawal · Khamaj · Kafi · Asavari · Bhairav · Bhairavi · Todi · Purvi · Marwa · Kalyan

Hariprasad Chaurasia
Hariprasad Chaurasia at Bhubaneswar, Orissa
Background information
Born	(1938-07-01) 1 July 1938 (age 73)
Origin	Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Genres	Hindustani classical music
Occupations	Composer, flute player
Instruments	bansuri
Website	hariprasadchaurasia.com

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1 July 1938) is an Indian classical instrumentalist.^[1] He is a player of the bansuri, the Indian bamboo flute.

Early life[link]

Hariprasad Chaurasia was born in Allahabad in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.^[2] His father was a wrestler. His mother died when he was 6. He had to learn music without his father's knowledge, for his father wanted him to become a wrestler. He did go to the Akhada and train with his father for some time, although he also started learning music, and practising at his friend's house. He often credits his wrestling training for giving him the immense stamina and lung power that are the hallmarks of his flute playing, stating that,

Career[link]

Hariprasad Chaurasia started learning vocal music from his neighbor, Pandit Rajaram at the age of 15. Later, he switched to playing the flute under the tutelage of Pandit Bholanath Prasanna of Varanasi for eight years. He joined the All India Radio, Cuttack, Orissa in 1957 and worked as a composer and performer^[3][4][5] Much later, while working for All India Radio he received guidance from the reclusive Annapurna Devi, daughter of Baba Allaudin Khan.

He is considered a rare combination of innovator and traditionalist. He has expanded the expressive possibilities of the bansuri through his masterful blowing technique.

Apart from classical music, he has made a mark as a music director for Indian films along with Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, forming a group called Shiv-Hari. He has also collaborated with various world musicians in experimental cross-cultural performances, including the fusion group Shakti.

He serves as the Artistic Director of the World Music Department at the Rotterdam Music Conservatory in the Netherlands.

He has collaborated with several western musicians, including John McLaughlin and Jan Garbarek, and has also composed music for a number of Indian films. He has performed throughout the world, winning acclaim from varied audiences and fellow musicians including Yehudi Menuhin and Jean-Pierre Rampal.

Personal life[link]

Chaurasia is married to Anuradha, a classical vocalist from Orissa.^[6] They have a son Rajiv.^[7] From his first wife Kamla Chaurasia he has two sons Ajay and Vinay Chaurasia.

Awards[link]

• Sangeet Natak Academy - 1984
• Konark Samman - 1992^[4]
• Padma Bhushan - 1992
• Yash Bharati Sanman - 1994
• Padma Vibhushan - 2000
• Hafiz Ali Khan Award - 2000
• Dinanath Mangeshkar Award - 2000
• Pune Pandit Award - 2008, by The Art & Music Foundation, Pune, India
• National Eminence award, NADA VIDYA BHARTI by Visakha Music and Dance Academy, Vizag - 2009

Honours[link]

• Honoured by Dutch Royal family at Amsterdam,and was conferred with the title Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau (“officier in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau”) and was honoured by Princess Maxima herself.^[8]
• Ministry of Culture of the Republic of France.^[9] He has been appointed as Knight in the Order of Arts and Letter (“Ordres des Arts et Lettres”) in appreciation of the significant contribution he has made to spread culture in France and the rest of the World - 2009
• Honorary Doctorate by the North Orissa University for his unparalleled role and contribution to the world of Indian Classical Music - 2009

Books[link]

• Official biography "Woodwinds of Change" by Surjit Singh - 2008
• 'Hariprasad Chaurasia and the Art of Improvisation', by Henri Tournier^[10]

Discography[link]

These are major albums released by Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, categorized by release dates.²

Chaurasia in 2011

Chaurasia in 2007

With Ustad Zakir Hussain (2012)

1967

• Call of the Valley with Shivkumar Sharma and Brij Bhushan Kabra

1978

• Krishnadhwani 60

1981

• Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia - Flute

1984

• Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia - Flute (different set of ragas,same album name)

1987

• Morning to Midnight Ragas - Morning Ragas

1988

• Call of the Valley

1989

• Venu
• Live in Ahmedabad '89

1990

• Immortal Series

1991

• Megh Malhar

1992

• Night Ragas
• Live in Amsterdam '92
• Morning to Midnight Ragas - Afternoon Ragas
• All time Favorites
• Live from Sawai Gandharva Music Festival - Video (VHS)
• Raga-s DU Nord Et Du Sud
• Immortal Series - Flute Fantasia

1993

• Indian Classical Masters
• Daylight Ragas
• Flute - Hariprasad Chaurasia

1994

• Thumri - The Music of Love
• In A Mellow Mood
• Possession
• Immortal Series - Devine Drupad
• Classic Greats1 - Ideas on Flute

1995

• In Live Concert
• Cascades of Hindustani Music
• Maharishi Gandharva Veda - Sunrise Melody
• Maharishi Gandharva Veda - Morning Melody
• Maharishi Gandharva Veda - Midday Melody
• Maharishi Gandharva Veda - Afternoon Melody
• Maharishi Gandharva Veda - Evening Melody
• Maharishi Gandharva Veda - Sunset Melody
• Maharishi Gandharva Veda - Midnight Melody
• Maharishi Gandharva Veda - Late Night Melody
• Hariprasad Chaurasia - Flute
• Malhar-Chandrika
• Music 157 - Live in London
• Music - Flute
• Great Jugalbandis
• Music from the world of OSHO - Above & Beyond
• Prem Yog
• Written on the Wind
• Romantic Themes
• Saptarishi - Live at Siri Fort
• The Mystical Flute of Hari Prasad Chaurasia
• Maestro's Choice
• Basant Bahar
• Chaurasia's Choice

1996

• Hari Prasad Chaurasia & his Divine Flute
• Flute Recital
• Valley Recalls - In search of Peace, Love and Harmony
• Krishna's Flute - Master of the Bansuri
• Classical Encounters - A live Experience with Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia
• Fabulous Flute
• Pundit Hari Prasad Chaurasia
• In Concert - Vancouver, B.C
• Hariprasad Chaurasia - Flute
• The Bamboo Flautist of His Generation
• Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia - Nada in Jerusalem

1997

• Classical Encounters - A Live Experience with Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia
• Great Jugalbandis
• The Golden Collection (Classical)
• Immortal Essence
• Golden Raga Collection
• Bustan Abraham - Fanar (Guest appearance alongside Zakir Hussain)

1998

• Samarpan-VCD Special 60th Birthday Edition
• The Charms Companion
• Morning to Midnight - Morning to Dusk
• Music for Reiki

1999

• Jugalbandi
• Rasdhaara
• Live Inside Khajuraho
• Live in New Delhi - '89
• Golden Raga Collection
• Musical Titans of India - Jugalbandhi Video (VHS)
• Pure Joy - Positive Energy Music

2000

• Music without Boundaries
• Maaya - Far East
• Hriday - Cuba
• Caravan Spain
• Live Concert at Savai Gandharva Music Festival
• Gurukul - The Guru shishya Parampara

2001

• Adi-Ananth
• Love Divine - Parables of Passion
• Power & Grace - Live at the Saptak Festival 2001
• Discovery of Indian Classical Music
• Flute Duet

2003

• Flute Deity Hariprasad Chaurasia
• The Greatest Hits of Hariprasad Chaurasia
• Salvation - Instrumental Bhajans

Albums (release year unknown)[link]

• La Flute De Pundit Hariprasad Chaurasia
• Hariprasad Chaurasia - The Most Celebrated Flautist of India
• Sound of Silence
• Charm of the Bamboo flute
• Kalpana - Imagination
• A Kaleidoscope of various ragas
• Krishna Utsav
• Kali - Classical Instrumental
• Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia - the Living Legend of Flute
• Moon Light Moods - Flute Recital
• Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia - The Living Legend of Flute
• Indian Music
• HariDhwani
• Fusion India - Passage of India Series
• Being Still
• Dhammapada - Sacred teaching of Buddha
• The Charms Companion
• Eternity
• Nothing but wind (1988) - Composed by Ilaiyaraaja

With Zakir Hussain

• Making Music (ECM, 1986)

Music for Bollywood films[link]

Along with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma he composed music for

• Chandni
• Darr
• Lamhe
• Silsila
• Faasle
• Vijay
• Sahibaan

Music for Telugu films[link]

The music for the movie Sirivennela is composed by K. V. Mahadevan which revolves around the role of Pandit Hari Prasad, a blind flautist played by Sarvadaman Banerjee and flute renditions by Hariprasad Chaurasia.^[11]

Music for English films[link]

Some of his music is used in Mithaq Kazimi's 16 Days in Afghanistan.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hariprasad Chaurasia

• Official website
• Interview with Choodie Shivaram
• Hariprasad Chaurasia by Mohan Nadkarni
• Interview with The Scholars' Avenue, IIT Kharagpur

Pran Nath is a theoretical physicist working at Northeastern University, with research focus in elementary particle physics. He holds a Matthews Distinguished University Professor chair.

Research[link]

His main area of research is in the fields of supergravity and particle physics beyond the standard model. He is one of the originators of the first supergravity theory in 1975.^[1][2] In 1982 in collaboration with Richard Arnowitt and Ali Hani Chamseddine, he developed the field of Applied Supergravity^[3] and the supergravity grand unification^[4] popularly known as SUGRA or mSUGRA model for gravity mediated breaking of supersymmetry. SUGRA models, and specifically mSUGRA, are currently the leading candidates for discovery at the Fermilab Tevatron and at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). He has contributed to further development of the field through studies of CP violation,^[5][6] predictions on muon anomalous moment gμ − 2 ahead of experiment,^[7] supersymmetric dark matter,^[8] discovery of the hyperbolic branch of radiative breaking of the electroweak symmetry,^[9] and detection of supersymmetric signal at colliders via the so called tri-leptonic signal.^[10] He has also made contribution to studies on stability of the proton in unified models.^[11] His early work concerns the invention of effective Lagrangian method, the first current algebra analysis of pion-pion scattering^[12] and solution to the notorious U(1) problem.^[13] His recent work has focused SO(10) grand unification,^[14] and on the Stueckelberg extensions of the Standard Model.^[15][16] In 1999 he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for ”basic contributions in supersymmetry and supergravity”.

Life and career[link]

He was born in West Punjab, British India in 1939, and is of Kashmiri descent. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Science at the University of Delhi in 1958, and his Ph.D. degree from Stanford University in 1964. He taught at the University of California at Riverside 1964-65, and was Andrew Mellon Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh from 1965-66. Since 1966 he has been at Northeastern University. He has held visiting positions at TIFR, Mumbai under the United Nations Development Program, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, at Bonn, CERN, Heidelberg and Munich. He was co-chair of the conference "Gauge Theories and Modern Field Theory", in 1975, and founding chair in 1990 of the annual PASCOS symposium (Particle physics, String theory and Cosmology), and also the founding chair in 1993 of the annual conference SUSY. In 2004 PASCOS symposium held a special Pran Nath Festschrift honouring his ”pioneering contributions over four decades in the fields of high energy theory, supersymmetry, supergravity, and unification”.^[17][18] A full list of his publications can be seen here^[19] International conference SUGRA20. An international conference was held at Northeastern University March 17–20, 2003 celebrating 20 years since the invention of SUGRA unified model of which he was a co-author.^[20]

References and notes[link]

'Proton stability in grand unified theories, in strings and in branes., Pran Nath, Pavel Fileviez Perez, Published in Phys.Rept.441:191-317,2007. http://arXiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0601023

External links[link]

• Pran Nath (Faculty Research Profile), Northeastern University, http://www.physics.neu.edu/Department/Vtwo/faculty/nath.htm, retrieved 2007-07-18 

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]