Annapurna Devi

Annapurna Devi
Born Roshanara Khan
1927
Maihar, Central India Agency, British India
Died 13 October 2018(2018-10-13) (aged 90–91)
Mumbai, India
Spouse(s)
Children Shubhendra Shankar
Parent(s)
Relatives Ali Akbar Khan (brother)

Annapurna Devi (IAST: Annapūrṇā Devi; 1927 – 13 October 2018) was an Indian surbahar (bass sitar) player of Hindustani classical music. She was given the name 'Annapurna' by former Maharaja Brijnath Singh of the former Maihar Estate (M.P.), and it was by this name that she was popularly known. She was the daughter and disciple of Allauddin Khan, the founder of Maihar gharana, and from 1941 to 1962 was married to sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, also one of her father's disciples. She gave up public performances to save her marriage with Ravi Shankar, but he divorced her and went to USA in 1962. After her divorce, she never performed again in public. She moved to Mumbai, became a recluse and started teaching. Over the years she had had notable disciples: Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nityanand Haldipur, Nikhil Banerjee, Amit Bhattacharya, Pradeep Barot, Sudhir Phadke, Sandhya Apte and Saswatti Saha.[1]

Biography

Annapurna Devi was born in 1927 at Maihar, a small princely state of British India (now a part of Madhya Pradesh, India).[2][3][lower-alpha 1] Her father Alauddin Khan was a royal court musician at the court of Maharaja Brijnath Singh, who named the newborn girl 'Annapurna'.[6]

Devi's father and guru Alauddin Khan, founder of the "Senia Maihar gharana" or "Senia Maihar School" of Hindustani classical music, was a noted musician and guru of Indian classical music. Her uncles, Fakir Aftabuddin Khan and Ayet Ali Khan, were noted musicians at their native place Shibpur, in the present-day Bangladesh. Her brother Ali Akbar Khan was a legendary Sarod maestro and was considered a "national living treasure" in India and the USA. Her former husband, virtuoso Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, was famous internationally as an Indian classical musician. Their son, Shubhendra Shankar, also performed as a musician.

Annapurna Devi married Ravi Shankar on 15 May 1941 in Almora and divorced him in October 1982. She married Rooshikumar Pandya in Bombay on 9 December 1982.[7] Rooshikumar Pandya, who was 42 years old at the time of their marriage, was a well known communication expert and a successful sitarist in the United States. Rooshikumar had been learning sitar from her since 1973 at the recommendation of her brother, Ali Akbar Khan, who was also his guru (as was Ravi Shankar). He died in 2013 suddenly of a cardiac arrest at the age of 73.[8][9][10]

Career

Annapurna Devi became a very accomplished surbahar (bass sitar) player of the Maihar gharana (school) within a few years of starting to take music lessons from her father Alauddin Khan. She started guiding many of her father's disciples, including Nikhil Banerjee and Bahadur Khan, in classical music as well as in the techniques and intricacies of instrumental performances. In 1941, age 14, she married one of her father's talented students, Ravi Shankar. She converted to Hinduism upon marriage. [11]

In the 1950s, Ravi Shankar and Annapurna Devi performed duets in Delhi and Calcutta, principally at the college of her brother, Ali Akbar Khan. But later, Shankar started getting insecure, since she used to be applauded in concerts more than he was, and she thereafter decided not to perform publicly.

Devi and Shankar's son, Shubhendra Shankar (1942–1992), (or "Subho", as he was popularly known) received rigorous training in sitar under her tutelage, until his father chose to interrupt his musical talim or training and took him to the United States. Shubhendra died at an early age, after a marriage and the birth of three children. Shubhendra did not have a solo career in classical music, but did for a period accompany his illustrious father Ravi Shankar in concerts in the USA and abroad.

Teaching

Notable mentions among her students would be her nephew Sarod maestro Aashish Khan Debsharma; Biren Banerjee of Howrah also received training from her; renowned flautists Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Nityanand Haldipur;[12] Sitarists Pandit Nikhil Banerjee and Saswatti Saha received training from her, Chandrakant Sardeshmukh, Sudhir Phadke from Pune (not to be confused with the late composer Sudhir Phadke), Dr. Hemant Desai, and Professor Rooshikumar Pandya; and Sarodists Pradeep Barot, Amit Bhattacharya and Basant Kabra. The list of other occasional students includes Shyamal Sen (Sarode), Sandhya Apte (Sitar), Leenata Vaze (Sitar), Amit Hiren Roy (Sitar), Stuti Dey (Sarode), Uma Guha (Sarode), Milind Sheorey (Flute), and Kokila Rai, wife of the late Vasant Rai (Surbahar). All of them carry on the legacies of Annapurna Devi's, and thus Alauddin Khan's, music through their recitals.

She is also the key figure of Acharya Alauddin Music Circle (an association in the memory of the late Alauddin Khan for promoting Indian classical music), in Mumbai.

Honours

She has not recorded any music albums. Some of her performances are reported to have been secretly taped. In spite of Devi's avoidance of media-limelight, she continues to be thought of as a classical instrumentalist of the highest calibre in India.

Notes

  1. ↑ There appears to be considerable confusion on her exact date of birth. In her authorised biography, the author notes that the circumstantial references point to Annapurna being born on the "Chaitra purnima day of the Bengali year of 1334 (1927)". But he finds no reliable accounts or documented evidence in support of this and chooses not to speculate.[3] Newspaper articles cited here choose to only mention her birth year. One source notes that she was born on 23 April 1927 but provides no basis for this.[4] According to the traditional Hindu calendar, Chaitra Purnima in 1927 fell on Sunday, 16 April 1927.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Kumar, Ranee (18 August 2011). "Rich legacy remembered". The Hindu. Chennai, India.
  2. ↑ OEMI.
  3. 1 2 Bondyopadhyay 2005, p. 22.
  4. ↑ Lavezzoli 2006, p. 52.
  5. ↑ "1927 Chaitra Purnima, Chaitra Pournami date for Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India". www.drikpanchang.com. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  6. ↑ Shuansu Khurana (16 May 2010). "Notes from behind a locked door". Indian Express.
  7. ↑ Bondyopadhyay 2005, Cast.
  8. ↑ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Every-Note-Annapurna-Devi-Plays-Is-Like-An-Offering-Rooshikumar-Pandya/articleshow/41890785.cms
  9. ↑ http://www.metamindmanagement.com/rooshikumarpandya_profiles.htm
  10. ↑ http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/death-of-a-caregiver/1108875/
  11. ↑ "Unveiling the mystique of a reclusive artiste", The Hindu - 28 June 2005
  12. ↑ Ray Chowdhury, Tathagata (January 26, 2015). "Bansuri innovator ignored in city". The Times of India. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2014. Retrieved July 21, 2015.

Sources

  • Bondyopadhyay, Swapan Kumar (2005). Annapurna Devi: An Unheard Melody. Roli Books Private Limited. ISBN 9788174368553.
  • Annapūrṇā Devi, The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Music of India. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195650983. Retrieved 13 October 2018. (Subscription required (help)).
  • Lavezzoli, Peter (2006). The Dawn of Indian Music in the West. A&C Black. ISBN 9780826418159.
  • ^ Unveiling the Mystique of a Reclusive Artiste, Jaya Ramanathan, The Hindu, 28 June 2005.
  • "Notes from behind a locked door (A rare interview)". Indian Express. 16 May 2010.
  • "Raviji never left her". Times of India, Priyanka Dasgupta, 27 Aug 2008.
  • "Annapurna Devi and Ravi Shankar: The tragedy of a relationship". September 2000 issue of Man's World. Archived from the original on 16 December 2012.
  • Annapurna Devi's music, Source: The Vijaya Parrikar Library of Indian Classical Music
  • Annapurna Devi by Mohan Nadkarni
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