Ram Narayan - Family and Personal Life

Family and Personal Life

Narayan shared a close relationship with his older brother, Chatur Lal, who learned the tabla primarily to accompany his brother's sarangi playing. Lal studied under tabla teachers in his youth, but later turned to farming. Lal visited Narayan 1948 in Delhi after Narayan had become a professional sarangi player, and Narayan convinced Lal to work as a tabla player at the local AIR station. Lal became an acclaimed musician, toured with instrumentalists Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan in the 1950s, and helped popularize the tabla in Western countries. When Lal died in October 1965, Narayan had difficulty performing and struggled with alcoholism, but overcame the addiction after two years. Narayan assisted his brother's four children after their father's death. Chatur Lal's son, Charanjit Lal Biyavat, is a tabla player and has toured Europe with Narayan.

Narayan's wife Sheela, a homemaker, came to Mumbai in the 1950s and they had four children. She died prior to 2001. His oldest son, sarod player Brij Narayan, was born on 25 April 1952 in Udaipur, and his daughter Aruna Narayan was born in 1959 in Mumbai. She was the first woman to give a solo sarangi concert and immigrated to Canada in 1984. Another son, Shiv, who is a year younger than Aruna, has learned to play the tabla, and toured Australia with his father. Brij Narayan's son, Harsh Narayan, plays the sarangi. In 2009, Narayan performed at BBC's The Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, London, with Aruna, and he played at the 2010 Sawai Gandharva Music Festival, Pune, with Harsh.

Narayan is a Hindu and has stated "music is my religion", arguing that there was no better access to divinity than music. He is based in Mumbai.