"The quickest way to reach godliness is through music."
Pandit Ravi Shankar (1920 – 2012), the sitar virtuoso became the world's best-known exponent of North Indian classical music and influenced many musicians in India and throughout the world. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1967, Padma Vibhushan in 1981 & Bharat Ratna in 1999.
Shankar was born to a Bengali Brahmin family in India, and spent his youth as a dancer touring India and Europe 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. Shankar recomposed the music for the popular song "Sare Jahan Se Achcha".
In 1956, Shankar began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. His influence on Harrison helped popularize the use of Indian instruments in Western pop music. Shankar engaged Western music by writing compositions for sitar and orchestra, and toured the world. He became the first Indian to compose music for non-Indian films.
Shankar's interplay with Alla Rakha improved appreciation for tabla playing in Hindustani classical music.
Shankar founded the Kinnara School of Music in Mumbai in 1962. He opened a Western branch of the Kinnara School of Music in Los Angeles and published an autobiography, My Music, My Life. He wrote a second autobiography, Raga Mala, with Harrison as editor.
Shankar won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance for West Meets East, a collaboration with Yehudi Menuhin. He won a total of five Grammy Awards, making him the Indian with the most Grammy Awards.
His daughters Norah Jones & Anoushka Shankar are accomplished musicians.
He served as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. He continued to perform until the end of his life.