The illustrious other: Pandit Ravi Shankar's first wife says the maestro was insecure of her popularity

The story of Pandit Ravi Shankar and his first wife who is considered to be a better musician and the “virtuoso’s virtuoso”, surbahar maestro Annapurna Devi, could almost be the plot of 1973 blockbuster Abhimaan. Infact, a lesser known fact is  that it was this marriage that was the basis of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Abhimaan, where a famous singer (Amitabh Bachchan) and his shy wife (Jaya Bachchan) have problems in their marriage when her popularity soars above his. Mukherjee discussed the story with Annapurna Devi before he embarked on the film. However, while in the movie the couple gets back together, in real life Ravi Shankar and Annapurna Devi’s marital discord got worse and they eventually divorced.

In an interview published in the Times of India, legendary sitar exponent Annapurna Devi, who vanished from the public eye almost 60 years ago and lives the life of a recluse in Mumbai’s Breach Candy, spoke in length of her music, her illustrious father and mentor Ustad Allauddin Khan and her relationship and marriage with the world-renowned Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Born in 1926 to sarod maestro Allauddin, one of the country’s foremost classical musicians of the 20th century, in Maihar, then in the Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh), Annapurna took training in music from her father since childhood along with her brother Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Annapurna still remembers the day in 1938 when Robu (as Ravi Shankar was known then), a pert westernised teenager then, first came to Maihar to learn from her father. Ravi Shankar was 18 then, Annapurna 9.

According to a report in The Telegraph , which was published right after Ravi Shankar’s death on 11 December 2012, Annapurna Devi had said:

“In Panditji’s death, India has lost one of the greatest musicians. It’s a great loss to the world of music in general and to Maihar gharana in particular. He loved Baba (Ustad Allauddin Khan). He loved music. He and Dada (Ustad Ali Akbar Khan) did more for our music globally than anyone I know.”

Annapurna was first trained in dhrupad and sitar but her father later asked her to concentrate on the surbahar — an instrument similar to the sitar only heavier and more difficult to play. Annapurna and Ravi Shankar’s marriage in 1941 was actually the idea of latter’s elder brother, Uday Shankar, who popularised Indian dance in the world by adapting European theatrical techniques to it.

“Uday had sought Allauddin’s permission so that two of the country’s best-known families in the performing arts could be united by marriage, and Allauddin was known to have given his consent after initial hesitations.”

In the interview, Annapurna recalls that Ravi Shankar’s behaviour towards their son Shubho was that of neglect which according to her led to Shubho’s “tragic and untimely” death. She said:

“Panditji said he could not take care of Shubho because he had his own family then (Sukanya and Anoushka Shankar). I wondered why he did not consider Shubho also to be a part of his own family."

The couple performed together a few times after their marriage to thunderous applause in various parts of India, including at Talkatora Gardens and the Constitution Club in New Delhi and at Eden Gardens and Park Circus in Kolkata. A few who were fortunate enough to witness the historic duet have chronicled their experience in memoirs.

In a report which published another interview with Annapurna Devi quoted Madanlal Vyas, who was Ravi Shankar’s student and the music critic for The Navbharat Times for 36 years, as saying:

“After the concerts people used to surround Annapurna Devi more than him, which Panditji could not tolerate. He was no match for her. She is a genius. Even Baba, the unforgiving and uncompromising Guru called her the embodiment of Saraswati. What higher praise than this?”

And this, according to Annapurna led to the marital discord.

“Panditji (Shankar) was not happy, as I received more appreciation than he did from both the audience and the critics whenever we performed together in the 1950s. And that had a negative impact on our marriage. Though he never categorically stopped me from performing in public, he made it clear in several ways that he wasn’t happy with the fact that I was drawing more applause.”

Annapurna Devi’s last public performance was in the year 1956 following which she decided to shun public life and confined herself to her Breach Candy apartment. Soon after that Ravi Shankar left for the US his family acquaintance-cum-live-in partner Kamala Shastri. Last time that Ravi Shankar met Annapurna was in 1980. The 88-year-old said:

“I was an introvert, more of a family person. I was keener to save the marriage than to earn name and fame. “I tried all I could, because I did not want to hurt my father, Ustad Allauddin Khan, who taught us whatever we know of music. He was a devout, god-fearing person. He certainly did not like to see his only daughter’s marriage falling apart. But Panditji already had other women in his life.”

It was one of the cruellest ironies of fate that the marriage between two of the country’s most gifted musicians could not ultimately be saved, despite her enormous sacrifice. Decades after her separation with Shankar, Annapurna married her student Rooshikumar Pandya in 1982. Pandya did everything possible to take care of his guru till Pandya breathed his last in April 2013.