The Legendary Annapurna Devi Drew Her Last Breath At The Age Of 92

Annapurna Devi, the Legendary Musician, drew her last breath at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai early morning on Saturday at the age of 92.

According to the spokesperson of Annapurna Devi, the musician has suffered from health-related diseases for a very long time. The demise of Devi is the great loss of Hindi music as her prominent devotion to composing career.

Great devotion of a legendary

Born in a family having musical tradition, Devi was exposed to music and instrument on a very early age. At first, she learned classical music with her musician father, Ustad ‘Baba’ Allauddin Khan. A few years later, Devi became an accomplished bass sitar player of the Maihar Gharana (school).

After the public performance during the 1950s with her husband, Ravi Shankar, Devi decided to stop and lived as a recluse. Annapurna Devi had great success in training a lot of talented musicians, namely, Aashish Khan, Amit Bhattacharya, Bahadur Khan, Basant Kabra, Hariprasad Chaurasia. In 1977, she received the Padma Bhushan (India's third highest civilian honor). In 1991, Devi received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (the highest Indian honor in performing arts).

Painful personal life

At the age of 14, Annapurna Devi married Ravi Shankar, her father's talented student. However, her married life was full of sadness and pressure since the pretty behavior of Ravi Shankar. They had a son named Shubhendra Shankar. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1992 on an early age because of Ravi's selfishness. Shubhendra Shankar should have followed sitar career of his mother Devi but Ravi decided to interrupt and bring his son to America. Needless to say, Devi and Riva's marriage was broken since then.

After the divorce, Devi moved to Nariman Point, became a teacher at the National Centre for Performing Arts. Here, she met Rooshikumar Pandya and had a happy marriage till the end of her life, 2013. However, her husband died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 73. After the demise of her dear husband, Devi received the help of Nitayanad Haldipur, a retired musician. This man helped Devi to establish the free music learning center named Annapurna Foundation.

Though having experienced such a vicissitudes life, Devi's music is always full of the smell of roses, purity and enthusiasm. And it became more beautiful, more powerful.

Annapurna Devi hasn't followed Islamic rituals since her marriage to her first husband. Therefore, instead of being buried, Devi will be cremated.