Ravi Shankar

To me, Ravi Shankar was the great bridge that opened Indian classical music to the world. Born in sacred Varanasi, he mastered the sitar so completely that he could mentor a Beatle and still command the awe of purists. The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Japan's Praemium Imperiale only confirm what his music already proved: that he carried an Eastern spiritual sensibility into Western ears without diluting it. He passed in 2012 at ninety-two, yet his meditative ragas still ring out everywhere. I find myself wanting to sit upright and simply listen, which is the mark of a true master.

Name (English)

Ravi Shankar

Name (Japanese)

ラヴィ・シャンカル

Reading

らゔぃ・しゃんかる

Born

April 7, 1920 – December 11, 2012

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aries / Monkey

Origin

Varanasi, Varanasi district, India

Occupation

composer / sitarist / film director / politician / conductor

Awards & achievements

• Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres‎
• Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
• 1992 Ramon Magsaysay Award
• 2013 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
• Banga Bibhushan
• 1997 Praemium Imperiale
• James Parks Morton Interfaith Award
• 1962 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award

• Official sitehttps://www.ravishankar.org
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi%20Shankar
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AB%E3%83%AB
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q103774

Tags

• Varanasi district
• composer
• sitarist
• film director

Last updated

2026-06-11

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.