Annapurna Devi | |
---|---|
Birth name | Roshanara Khan |
Born |
Maihar, India |
16 April 1927
Genres | Hindustani classical music |
Instruments | Surbahar |
Associated acts | Alauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar |
Annapurna Devi (born Roshanara Khan on 16 April 1927), is an Indian surbahar (bass sitar) player of Hindustani Classical Music. She is 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. After her divorce, she never performed again in public. She moved to Mumbai, became a recluse and started teaching. Over the years she has had notable disciples: Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nityanand Haldipur, Nikhil Banerjee, Amit Bhattacharya, Pradeep Barot and Saswatti Saha (Sitar).
Annapurna Devi was born on the occasion of chaiti purnima, 16 April 1927 at Maihar, a small princely state of British India (now a part of Madhya Pradesh state of India), where her father Alauddin Khan was a royal court musician at the court of Maharaja Brijnath Singh, who named the newborn girl 'Annapurna'.
Devi's father 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 perhaps the most famous Indian classical musician internationally. Their son, Shubhendra Shankar, also performed as a musician.