| Annapurna Devi | |
|---|---|
| Born | 23 April 1927 Maihar, India |
| Genres | Hindustani classical music |
| Instruments | surbahar |
| Associated acts | Alauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar |
Annapurna Devi (Devanagari: अन्नपूर्णा देवी; born Roshanara Khan (Urdu: روشن آراخان ) on 23 April 1927) is a reclusive surbahar (bass sitar) player of Hindustani Classical Music.
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Devi's father and guru Alauddin Khan, founder of the "Senia Maihar Gharana" or "Senia Maihar School" of Hindustani classical music, was considered a singular phenomenon in the twentieth century Indian classical music. Her uncles Fakir Aftabuddin Khan and Ayet Ali Khan were revered musicians at their native place Shibpur in the present-day Bangladesh. Her brother Ali Akbar Khan was a legendary Sarode maestro and was considered a "national living treasure" in India and the USA. Her former husband Sitarist Ravi Shankar is perhaps the best-known Indian classical musician abroad.
Annapurna Devi was born in 23 April 1927[1] at Maihar, a small princely state of British India (now a part of Madhya Pradesh state of India), where her revered father Alauddin Khan was a royal court musician at that time. But, her family has their ancestry in the village of Shibpur, Brahmanbaria, in the then British India, present Bangladesh. Annapurna Devi grew up in Maihar as Roshanara Khan. She was one of the three daughters (Jahanara, Sharija, Roshanara) of Alauddin Khan. Sharija died an early death suffering from diseases in her childhood. When Alauddin's other daughter, Jahanara, got married, and a jealous mother-in-law burnt her Tambura, a shocked Alauddin Khan decided not to train his only other daughter Roshanara. One day, however, he came home to discover Annapurna teaching her brother Ali Akbar Khan, and her talent made the emotional father change his mind. Annapurna, since then, started learning classical vocal music, Sitar, and Surbahar from her father.
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. 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. On marriage, she converted to Hinduism and received the name Annapurna from the Maharaja of Maihar, Maharaj Brijnath Singh Ju Deo[1]. 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 Annapurna Devi, but decided to opt for painting when he grew up and subsequently settled down in the USA. However, though Subho did not have a solo career in classical music, he used to assist his illustrious father Ravi Shankar in concerts all over the world.
In early life, both Ravi Shankar and Annapurna Devi have performed even duets in a number of concerts nationwide. But later, while Shankar decided to go out to perform the Sitar all over the world, Annapurna Devi increasingly chose to rest.
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; Sitarists Pandit Nikhil Banerjee received training from her, Chandrakant Sardeshmukh, the late 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 Sandhya Apte (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.
Though she refrained from taking music as her profession, she received utmost reverence in all circles of Indian classical music especially for her unending repertoire in Indian classical music, and her traditional "dhrupadi" approach to music. She has received some of the most distinguished musical and civilian honours of India. She is the recipient of, among many, the Padma Bhushan (India's third highest civilian honour) in 1977; and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (the highest Indian honour in performing arts) in 1991; and the Deshikottam which is an honorary doctorate degree by Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore's Visva-Bharati University in 1999. In the year 2004, the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Government of India's highest organisation for promoting music and other fine arts, has appointed her a "Ratna" or jewel fellow (a lifetime honour).
She has not recorded any music albums. But some of her performances (notably, 1. Raga Kaushi Kanara and Raga Majh Khamaj, Surbahar recital; and 2. Raga Yaman duet Surbahar recital with Ravi Shankar) that have been secretly taped from her earlier (1950s) concerts, are non-commercially available among a percentage of music lovers in India.
In spite of her avoidance of media-limelight, she continues to be thought of as a classical instrumentalist of the highest calibre in India.
^ Unveiling the Mystique of a Reclusive Artiste, Jaya Ramanathan, The Hindu, 28 June 2005. ^ Swapan Kumar Bondyopadhyay: An Unheard Melody: Annapurna Devi – an Authorised Biography, Roli, New Delhi, 2005. ISBN 81-7436-399-8.
A rare interview with Suanshu Khurana http://www.indianexpress.com/news/notes-from-behind-a-locked-door/619877/0