Pandit Ravisankar, the world famous Sitarist .

Pandit Ravi  Sankar was born on 7th April 1920 in Varanasi in a Bengali family as the youngest amongseven brothers. His father Shyam  Shankar was a Barrister . He was a politician and  also worked as Dewan for several years
as  Dewan of jhalwar , Rajasthan , later he worked as a lawyer in England.

At the age of ten Shankar went to Paris with the dance group of his elder brother Uday Shankar . At the age of thirteen he became a member of the group . As a member of the tour he learned to dance and play various Indian instruments. The dance group toured to Europe and united states . Shankar learned French and discovered classical music.He gave up dancing in 1938 to study Sitar playing under court Musician Aladdin Khan.

After finishing his studies in 1944,Shankar worked as a composer , creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Styajit Roy , and was music Director of All India Radio , New Delhi from 1949 to 1956.

In 1956 he began to tour to Europe and America playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there.In 1960s  Shankar was engaged in western music by writing compositions for Sitar and Orchestra , and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s .

From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha  , the upper house of the parliament of the country .He continued to perform till the end of his life.In 1999 Shankar was awarded Bharat Ratna . He died on 11th December 2012 at California.