Annapurna Devi: A Musical Genius Lost to Patriarchy
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Annapurna Devi is a name seldom taken by the plebian when talking of the virtuosos of the Hindustani Classical Music. Despite being surrounded by maestros on all sides—daughter and disciple of the great Allauddin Khan, sister of sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and first wife of Pandit Ravi Shankar—her name still escapes most tongues when listing the legacy of the doyens of the genre. However, though she stepped down from the limelight almost 60 years ago, but her talent has made it impossible for time to completely dim her resonance.
Born as Roshanara Khan, Annapurna Devi exhibited a talent that would have her reckoned with the greatest gurus of classical Hindustani music. But unfortunately, life served her a role of a recluse and the world lost the chance to experience a musical genius. Connoisseurs and music critics believe that she is a more gifted musician than either Ravi Shankar or Ali Akbar.
Initially denied her training in music—to spare her the marital problems faced by her elder sister the musical talent that ran in her veins inevitably made itself known. She got to learn purely because of her own gift. Overhearing the young and untrained Roshanara correcting the great Ali Akbar, her father Allauddin Khan recognized her talent and finally decided to train her.
She married Pandit Ravi Shankar, who was a disciple of her father when she was just 14 and Panditji, 21. However the marriage culminated into an eventual separation of the two and an end to the public life of Annapurna Devi. She has hardly stepped out of her apartment in South Mumbai since.
The marriage was in discord from the very start as Ravi Shankar himself admitted in his autobiography, Raga Mala, “There was no love or romance or hanky-panky at all between Annapurna and myself, despite what many people thought at that time. I do not know how she truly felt about the match before marriage, although I was told that she had ‘agreed’.”
The problem started when Ravi Shankar first cheated on Annapurna Devi after two years into their marriage, which he admits in his autobiography, Ravi Shankar: An Autobiography, “This was first time in my marriage that I had become deeply attracted to somebody else. Annapurna doubted me with everyone anyway. So it was nothing new for her to doubt me with Kamala—only this time it was true. I was not in a state to think reasonably”. Annapurna had recognized Ravi Shankar’s yet another hidden talent as this state of his continued till he settled down with Saumya Rajan, at the age of 58. He did this while he was cheating on Kamala with dating Sue Jones, with whom he fathered her, now famous, daughter Norah Jones in 1979.
He went on to say, “I felt I could be in love with different women in different places. It was like having a girl in every port - and sometimes there was more than one!” You can’t really question someone who is this florid about their romance.
Now, it would be preposterous of us to assume people of such genius to be perfect, especially in the normative sense. It is only our godly image of these mortals that delivers us such mirage. Even Einstein, who was married to fellow scientist Mileva Maric, had imposed conditions like, “You will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way and you will stop talking to me if I request it” for them to stay together.
Thus, the aforementioned speculations are neither an attempt to demonize Shankar, nor question his genius. It is just an attempt to put into perspective, for instance, the thought of the loss of a greater genius than Einstein, only because Einstein could not handle his ego and libido. Moreover, when he, directly or indirectly, launched an emotional attack which he knew would fracture her.
Such is the case of Annapurna Devi—which will stay to haunt us. To assess such loss would only land us in questioning our measly contribution to this world.
As the argument would go—it would be unfair to Shankar as it was her choice to get off the public stage and to remain a recluse for the rest of her life. But let us not forget why she stepped down from the public eye. It was to save her marriage from the dissatisfaction which had crept in Ravi Shankar when Annapurna was drawing more applause after they performed together in the 1950s.
The surbahar wizard said, "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,"… it "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." She also said, "I was an introvert, more of a family person. I was keener to save the marriage than to earn name and fame."
Madanlal Vyas, who was Ravi Shankar’s student, also attests to this. “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?”
Another important factor in her choice to save her marriage with Ravi Shankar was her father whom she did not want to disappoint “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”. “Whenever I performed, people appreciated my playing and I sensed that Panditji was not too happy about their response. I was not that fond of performing anyway so I stopped it and continued my sadhana.”
She took a vow before an image of Baba and Goddess Shardama never to perform in public again. But even a sacrifice as stark as this didn’t save her marriage.
She took a vow before an image of Baba and Goddess Shardama never to perform in public again. But even a sacrifice as stark as this didn’t save her marriage.
And true to the fears of her Baba, it was her musical talent which crumbled her marriage, just like it did for her sister. Her only fault being to not follow the social standards of the wifely subordination to the husband, to be always lesser than him. If not lesser than him in actuality, at least pretend to be lesser than him, which is what Annapurna Devi tried to do by vowing not to perform in public. She did everything that was in her right to let her world return to normalcy, but her talent was her tragic flaw.
According to Ustad Amir Khan “Annapurna Devi is 80 percent of Ustad Allauddin Khan, Ali Akbar is 70 percent and Ravi Shankar is about 40 percent.” Ali Akbar himself agrees in his oft-quoted statement: “Put Ravi Shankar, Pannalal (Ghosh) and me on one side and put Annapurna on the other and yet her side of the scale will be heavier.”
Such greatness embodied in a female body could not flourish in a society where the ego of the husband and the norms were to be upheld.
However, Annapurna has still given us a pinch of her talent in the form of her students who are names familiar to everybody—Nikhil Banerjee, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nityanand Haldipur, Basant Kabra, Amit Bhattacharya, and Amit Roy. Here, Pandit Nityanand Haldipur speaks about his learning experience with Annapurna Devi.
She has, for the greater part of her life, resided a ‘room of her own’, where the few who get to witness her phenomenal talent, swear by the luminescence of it.
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