Gifted Indian sitar player who helped introduce the instrument to a wider audience. He was known for his use of Carnatic music and was given the title Pandit.
He toured India and Europe with his brother Uday Shankar's famous dance group, eventually giving it up to learn the sitar with Allauddin Khan.
He was especially close to George Harrison of The Beatles, a friendship that gained him international recognition and influenced the track "Within You Without You" from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles' 1967 Grammy Award-winning album.
He married Roshanara Annapurna Khan in 1941, but the couple divorced in 1961. He married Sukanya Ranjan in 1988. He had two daughters, Norah and Anoushka, and a son, Shubhendra.
He collaborated with Yehudi Menuhin on the 1966 album West Meets East, which garnered the duo a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance in 1967.
