She Was Poised To Be A Star — Instead, She Spent 60 Years In Her Apartment
Last week, an extraordinary musician died — by many accounts, an artist who may have been the best Indian classical artist of the 20th century. But this superlative talent chose to erase herself from public life more than 60 years ago.
As a surbahar (bass sitar) player, Annapurna Devi was hailed in the 1940s and 1950s as a virtuoso, in possession of a nearly singular musical sensitivity. But if outsiders knew her at all, it was most likely only as an accessory to the men in her life: as the first wife of a worldwide sitar celebrity, the late Ravi Shankar, or as the daughter of Allauddin Khan, a venerated master of the lute-like sarod whose students helped Indian classical music reach a much wider world.
Annapurna Devi died at age 92 on Oct. 13 at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai; a spokesperson from her foundation told the Hindustan Times that she had been suffering from age-related health issues for several years prior to her death. In a 2014 feature, the reported that she had Parkinson's and had "long stopped teaching."
