Ravi Shankar

Awarded the Polar Music Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music Award, in 1998.

Had a relationship with dancer Kamala Shastri from the late '40s until 1981 when he left her to be with Sue Jones, the mother of his daughter Norah Jones.

Daughter Norah Jones, born in 1979, was from a relationship with Sue Jones, a New York concert producer. After fathering his daughter Anoushka Shankar with Sukanya Rajan in 1981, Shankar lived with Sue Jones until 1986 when he returned to Rajan and eventually married her.

Approached George Harrison in the summer of 1971 with news about the civil war in Bangladesh (then part of Pakistan), and asked Harrison's help in promoting a benefit concert to aid war refugees who had fled to India; Shankar had hoped to raise $10,000. The resulting The Concert for Bangladesh (1972) raised more than a hundred times that amount, but most of the money was held in escrow, due to an IRS tax investigation, until nearly a decade later.

Taught George Harrison of the Beatles how to play the sitar, an instrument on which he is considered a maestro. This included a tour of India during the Beatles' sabbatical in the 1966 where Shankar's tutoring had to eventually to be continued in the rural areas of the country to avoid the crowds that occurred when it was discovered that the rock star was visiting.

For his outstanding contribution to Indian music and culture, he received his first of five Presidential Awards in 1962, India's highest honor in the arts.

In the mid-1960s, his preeminence as one of the world's leading serious musicians was augmented with wide popular success. George Harrison of The Beatles developed a deep, abiding interest in Hindustani music, and began to study with Shankar. One influence of this study can be heard in his song Within You, Without You.

During the years 1950-55 Shankar composed some of his most famous music, most notably in the internationally-acclaimed film studios of Calcutta, where he scored The Ray Triology.

In 1949, Shankar became Music Director of All-India Radio at Delhi, and founded the Vadya Vrinda Chamber Orchestra.

By 1945 Shankar's reputation as the leading performer of traditional Hindustani music on the sitar had coalesced. He began to branch out as a composer, writing music for ballet and for important films such as such as Dharti Ke Lal and Neecha Nagar. He also composed the song Sare Jahan Se Accha, which is one of the most widely known piece of music in India.

Has a son Shubhendra Shankar, born in 1942, with his first wife Annapurna Devi.

From the age of 12, he performed as a musician and dancer on tour in Europe and America with his brother Uday Shankar, and in 1939 had his first concert as soloist at a music conference in Allahabad.

He moved to Paris in 1930, and received most of his education there.

Ravi Shankar was a world-renowned musician, composer, performer, and scholar of classical Indian music. He was one of the leading cultural figures of the twentieth century whose accomplishments placed him as the leading figure of an important musical tradition. His long and distinguished musical career included numerous recordings, performances at all the world's leading venues, and a series of unprecedented collaborations with other leading musicians. Although he is well known because of his interaction with the popular music world, it is important to underscore that Shankar is considered the leading international figure in a very elevated art form, Hindustani music. Shankar was born on April 7, 1920, in Varanasi, India.