Annapurna Devi

Annapurna Devi (17 April 1927 – 13 October 2018) was an Indian surbahar player of Hindustani classical music. She was given the name 'Annapurna' by Maharaja Brijnath Singh of the former Maihar Estate (M.P.), and it was by this name that she was popularly known. She was the daughter and disciple of Allauddin Khan, and the sister of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Pandit Ravi Shankar was her first husband, with whom she had a son, Shubhendra Shankar, who was an artist and a sitaritst. She was an extremely private person and was never interested in being a professional musician like the rest of her family. However, she was active throughout her life as a teacher to many other prominent musicians like Nikhil Banerjee, Hariprasad Chaurasia, and Nityanand Haldipur. She was the only known female maestro of the Surbahar in the 20th century. Biography Annapurna Devi was born on 17 April 1927 at Maihar, a princely state in Madhya Pradesh, India. Her father, Ustad Alauddin Khan, was the royal court musician at the court of Maharaja Brijnath Singh of Maihar State. Since on the day of her birth, he was away, it was the Maharaja who named her 'Annapurna'. Since she was born Muslim, her Islamic name was Roshanara Khan. However, she was always addressed to as Annapurna at home, and this name was legally formalised when she converted to Hinduism on the day of her marriage to Ravi Shankar. Her father, Alauddin Khan was one of the disciples of Ustad Mohammad Wazir Khan, the last descendant of the Mian Tansen, and was therefore a musician of the Rampur Senia gharana. He went on to found of the Senia-Maihar gharana, which was a branch of the Rampur Senia gharana of Wazir Khan but with its own uniqueness as a result of the more eclectic erudition that Alauddin Khan himself had acquired in his life through many other gurus, his adherence to the Dhrupad style of playing, and his opennes and versatiliity of baaj or playing style. Her uncles, Fakir Aftabuddin Khan and Ayet Ali Khan, were also musicians in Shibpur, Bangladesh. Her brother, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, was a Sarod maestro and was considered by many as a 'national treasure' in India.