HT This Day: August 1, 1992 -- Magsaysay award for Pandit Ravi Shankar
Born to a Bengali Brahmin family in 1920, Ravi Shankar went to Paris in the footsteps of his elder brother who formed Europe’s first Indian dance company
Manila: Famed sitar player Pandit Ravi Shankar has won the Ramon Magsaysay award for journalism, literature and communication arts, the award foundation today said.
Shankar was cited for “enriching India and the world with his sublime mastery of the sitar with music that colours the mind,” it said in a statement.
Born to a Bengali Brahmin family in 1920, he went to Paris in the footsteps of his elder brother who formed Europe’s first Indian dance company.
He became an acclaimed solo dancer and a competent player of the sitar, the bamboo flute and the drums, the foundation said.
But when he reached 18 and after travelling around Europe and America, he returned to India. Accepting stern rules of discipleship, Shankar placed himself under a renowned master of the sitar.
He persevered through lean years to become a versatile professional musician and began performing the sitar to international audiences in 1956.
Shankar was the fourth person to be awarded this year’s Magsaysay awards, named after a Philippine President who died in a plane crash in 1957. Winners each receive $30,000.