{"id":88434,"date":"2026-02-19T14:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T09:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=88434"},"modified":"2026-02-19T14:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T09:22:13","slug":"pandit-ravi-shankar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/pandit-ravi-shankar\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandit Ravi Shankar, Details, Early Life, Honours, Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pandit Ravi Shankar was a famous <\/span><b>Indian classical musician<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>sitar player<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. He is known for spreading Indian classical music to the international stage.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Pandit Ravi Shankar<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pandit Ravi Shankar was one of the greatest sitar players and composers of Indian classical music. He was born on<\/span><b> 7 April 1920 in Varanasi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. His original name was <\/span><b>Ravindra Shankar Chowdhury.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His father was <\/span><b>Shyam Shankar Chowdhury<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and mother was <\/span><b>Hemangini Devi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and he was their seventh son.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In his early years, he travelled with his brother\u2019s dance group, but later he left dancing to learn Indian classical music.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He received training under the famous <\/span><b>guru Ustad Allauddin Khan in Maihar<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. After completing his training, he started performing and soon became well known in India and abroad.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He worked as the <\/span><b>Music Director of All India Radio (1949\u20131956)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and composed music for films, including those of Satyajit Ray. In the 1960s, he became popular in Western countries and collaborated with <\/span><b>international artists like Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison of The Beatles.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to his efforts, Indian classical music gained global recognition, and George Harrison called him the<\/span><b> \u201cGodfather of World Music.\u201d<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the age of 25, he recomposed the famous song <\/span><b>&#8220;Saare Jahan Se Achcha&#8221;.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> .\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was also nominated as a member of the <\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/rajya-sabha\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rajya Sabha<\/a> from 1986 to 1992<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Pandit Ravi Shankar passed away on <\/span><b>11 December 2012 at the age of 92.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Pandit Ravi Shankar\u2019s Honours and Awards<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was awarded the <\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/bharat-ratna-award-winners\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bharat Ratna<\/a> in 1999<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is India\u2019s highest civilian honour.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He received the <\/span><b>Padma Bhushan in 1967<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>Padma Vibhushan in 1981<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for his exceptional contribution to music.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>1986<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he was honoured with the <\/span><b>Kalidas Samman by the Government of Madhya Pradesh <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for excellence in classical music.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was given the <\/span><b>Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1987<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the highest recognition for performing artists in India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>1992<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he won the <\/span><b>Ramon Magsaysay Award<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for his contribution to art and culture.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>1999,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> he was appointed as a <\/span><b>UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for his contribution to world culture.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He wrote two autobiographies:<\/span><b> My Life, My Music (1969) and Raga Mala (1999).<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>About Sitar<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Tata Vadya are stringed musical instruments<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in which sound is produced by the vibration of stretched strings. The strings are either plucked or played with a bow. The pitch of the sound depends on the length and tightness of the string.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>sitar is one of the most famous Indian string instruments<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It has a long neck, a large gourd-shaped body, and extra sympathetic strings that create a rich sound. It is mainly used in <\/span><b>Hindustani classical music of North India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and is often played as a solo instrument along with the <\/span><b>tanpura (for background drone) and tabla (for rhythm).<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is also used in Kathak dance performances.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are different views about its origin. Some scholars believe it has <\/span><b>Persian influence <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">because the word <\/span><b>\u201csitar\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is similar to the Persian word <\/span><b><i>sehtar<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, meaning a three-stringed instrument. Others think it developed from Central Asian instruments or from the Indian veena.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sitar became popular between the 16th and 18th centuries and later gained worldwide recognition. Gained global recognition in the <\/span><b>20th century through musicians like Pandit Ravi Shankar.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Know about Pandit Ravi Shankar, legendary sitar virtuoso who globalised Indian classical music, his life, awards like Bharat Ratna, and his musical legacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":88279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[5271,5272,5515],"class_list":{"0":"post-88434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-art-and-culture","9":"tag-art-and-culture-notes","10":"tag-pandit-ravi-shankar","11":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88434"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88756,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88434\/revisions\/88756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}