Book Review: Annapurna Devi: An Authorised Biography

An Unheard Melody: Annapurna Devi: An Authorised Biography

Author: Swapan Kumar Bondyopadhyay
Publisher: Roli Books under Lotus Collection

Personal life and romantic relationships of a celebrity is a popular topic of newspaper supplements. We love to lick off those stories that include lo

ve, sex, marriage, despair, breakup, new love, holidays, honeymoon, etc etc. Many of us do not find them objectionable or do not avoid reading them because they are “private stories”. A celebrity life seems to be open like a freshly cut orange. People want to enjoy its colour and taste its juice. On a similar line I became curious to read the authorised biography of Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar’s first wife Annapurna Devi. The back cover quote from Pandit Ravi Shankar hiked up the expectation: “Why people do not accept that it is possible to love more than one woman at a time….. Annapurna fails to appreciate this. She is an artist with a large heart, so why is she so guarded in matters of love.”

But while reading through the depth of this 190 pages paperback edition, my search for a film-like story took a new shape. It seemed the words were woven to depict the real-life incidents of some people who belonged to the heaven of music. They were in flesh and blood among us, at the same time they were far from our imagination. This is the story of an extraordinary family who led a very simple life in a Madhya Pradesh small town Maihar. Other than musical elements everything around them was undoubtedly ordinary. They were not rich; their house did not have electricity although Annapurna Devi’s father Baba Alauddin Khan was the court musician and music teacher of the Maharajah of Maihar. Baba was one of most gifted classical musicians of India. When it came to family and teaching he was a strict disciplinarian – both his children Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi woke up by 6 am to start their music lessons. They continued till 2.30 pm and then from 6 pm till their father’s namaz. The children could not make a deviation from this rule. Ravi Shankar came to stay with this family to learn music from Baba Alauddin Khan. Annapurna was only eleven years old then. During the intervals between the talim sessions, Ravi got closer to this girl having two braids of coming down from her shoulders and her eyes filled with kajal. He would tell her stories of ghosts in the next door house where he dwelt in. Ravi was attracted to this girl’s innocence as she closed her eyes in fright. However, Ravi Shankar and Annapurna’s marriage was an arranged one although they belonged to two different religions. Within two years of Ravi’s stay in Maihar, the wedding proposal came to Baba from none other than Ravi’s elder brother Uday Shankar who was by then a world famous dancer. Baba Alauddin was a musician in his dance troupe when it went abroad. Belonging to a conservative Muslim family, Baba was initially hesitant and he debated within himself. His patron, the Maharajah of Maihar warned him, “Be alert. This is a family of dancers, nachnewale.” However, he could not refuse the proposal that came from one of his favourite artists.

Besides the foreword written by Annapurna Devi herself, the book is divided into six chapters spanning her childhood days to her later days with the second husband Rooshikumar Pandya. However, it is not written in a systematic year-by-year way. I guess a chronological history of Annapurna Devi’s life was not the intention of the author. Throughout he wanted to sketch her image which was otherwise shielded under the cover of mystery and spoilt by various gossips and misconceptions. There are various stages of the life of an extraordinary woman: her life as a sincere student of her father, her life as a partner of Ravi Shankar, her days as a great teacher and finally her life in seclusion. I believe this was not an easy thing for the author as the person he interviewed was extremely private kind. She did not have the wish to open herself in front of anyone. In spite of this challenge, the author met Annapurna almost every year between 1994 and 2003 and he spoke to her at length on various issues, on some occasions the topics were very private. Not only that, this book also contains an interesting sections: Interviews of Annapurna Devi’s accomplished students Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nityanand Haldipur and Pandit Nikhil Banerjee who are considered among the highest talented artists of Indian classical music. This book provides their fond memories of a great teacher who they simply called “Ma”, the mother. A student of Indian classical music can learn from this book how Annapurna Devi used to teach her students.

Keeping apart Ravi Shankar’s musician life in India and abroad, the author has established him as a passionate lover and caring husband. “Love to Ravi came as easily and naturally as breathing.” The book clearly mentions his love affair with other women in post-marriage. The most important one was Kamla who was a student of his elder brother’s school in Almora. After their wedding, when Annapurana wanted to make a balance of her life between a musician and a loving mother and wife, Ravi embraced love in different forms – love for one’s wife, love for a friend and love for the other woman. He believed that each love was complementary to another. Annapurna was not a person to accept that. She resisted with her silence and went through the suffering which grew her heart stronger. There were three things that supported her from within: her profound love for her Guru and father; the music she bore in heart; and her desire to raise her son Subho Shankar as a great musician. There were some incidents that led her to take up a unique lifestyle of her own. She withdrew herself from performing in public after playing in a few concerts with Ravi Shankar.

The book also records her allegation against Ravi. She said to the author how Panditji spread false propaganda against her, and also scared away people from her. This was an example of sheer ego clash. In spite of this bitterness, she confessed, “Panditji is a great artist. I did not want scandals to be spread about him.” However, when Ravi Shankar wanted to come back to her long after their separation, she politely refused the proposal. Such was her enigma. One interested in the musical tradition of India will certainly enjoy reading this document. There are 16 pages of black and white rare photographs which add more value to this treatise. Only one of the pictures was relatively recent, but that too is a little blurred as if Annapurna was reluctant to show her full face. I think the author rightly respected her decision not to unveil herself completely. Annapurna is a person of few words; she writes in her foreword, “As for my life there is not much to write.” A researcher can gain a lot from the list of her concerts, chronology and selected reading in the end of the book.