Annapurna Devi - Career

Career

Annapurna Devi became a very accomplished Surbahar player of the Maihar gharana (school) within a few years of starting to take music lessons from her father, and started guiding many of her father's disciples, Nikhil Banerjee and Bahadur Khan) in classical music as well as in the techniques and intricacies of instrumental performances. Meanwhile, Alauddin Khan's Sitar student Ravi Shankar married Annapurna. (There is no documentary evidence, saying on the basis of Pandit Jotin Bhattacharya's two vol. Bengali book, Ustad Allauddin Khan o Aamraa. The marriage took place because of the eagerness and proposal of Uday Shankar.). The marriage between Ravi Shankar and Annapurna Devi took place when Ravi was 21 years and Annapurna was only 14 years old. The marriage lasted more than two decades, and she gave birth to a son, Shubhendra Shankar (1942–1992), whom Annapurna Devi trained in Sitar. Shubhendra Shankar (or "Subho", as he was popularly known) had rigorous training in Sitar under the tutelage of his mother. His father, however, chose to interrupt his musical talim or training and, instead brought 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 very occasionally accompany his illustrious father Ravi Shankar in concerts in the USA and abroad.

In the 1950's, both Ravi Shankar and Annapurna Devi performed duets in Delhi and Calcutta, principally at the college of her brother, Ali Akbar Khan. But later, as Shankar's career manifested in Europe and the United States, Annapurna Devi increasingly chose to become more reclusive. There are many speculations as to her withdrawal from public performance. She herself said she will reveal the reasons to no one. Annapurna Devi was already a master of the Surbhahar when Ravi Shankar came to study with her father, Alauddin Khan, in the court of Maihar, India.