Pandit Ravi Shankar was born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury on 7th April, 1920, to a Bengali family in Benares, British India.

Ravi Shankar spent his youth touring India and Europe with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar.

Pandit Ravi Shankar studied sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan after giving up dancing in 1938.

Pandit Ravi Shankar composed the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray after completing his education in 1944.

Pandit Ravi Shankar was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956.

His constant touring of Europe and the Americas, which began in 1956, during which Pandit Ravi Shankar would play Indian classical music helped increase the genre's popularity on a worldwide scale since then.

Pandit Ravi Shankar's association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison was instrumental in cementing the popularity of Indian Classic Music on an international platform.

Pandit Ravi Shankar's influence helped popularize the use of Indian instruments in pop music throughout the 1960s.

Pandit Ravi Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna in 1999.

Pandit Ravi Shankar served as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India.

Pandit Ravi Shankar married his mentor Allauddin Khan's daughter Annapurna Devi in 1941. They have a son Shubhendra Shankar, who was born in 1942. He often accompanied him on tours and could play the sitar and surbahar, but elected not to pursue a solo career. Shubhendra died in 1992 after a bout with pneumonia.

Pandit Ravi Shankar and Annapurna Devi separated during the 1940s and he embarked on a relationship with Kamala Shastri, a dancer, beginning in the late 1940s.

He fathered a daughter Norah Jones as a result of his affair with New York-based producer Sue Jones. Pandit Ravi Shankar and Kamala Shastri separated in 1981 and he lived with Jones until 1986. Norah Jones became a successful musician in the 2000s, winning eight Grammy Awards in 2003.

His daughter Anoushka Shankar was born to Sukanya Rajan, whom Pandit Ravi Shankar had known since the 1970s. Shankar and Rajan both married in 1989 at Chilkur Temple in Hyderabad, India.

Anoushka Shankar, also an accomplished by musician was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2003. Pictured: An undated image of Pandit Ravi Shankar in concert.

Pandit Ravi Shankar and daughter Anoushka were both nominated for Best World Music Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards for separate albums.

Pandit Shankar performed his final concert, with daughter Anoushka, on 4 November 2012 at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach, California.

Pandit Ravi Shankar passed away on December 11, 2012, after undergoing heart valve replacement surgery.

The Swara Samrat festival organized on 5-6 January 2013 was dedicated to Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan featured performances by musicians like Shivkumar Sharma, Birju Maharaj, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Zakir Hussain, Girija Devi and others.

A silhouette photo portrait of Pandit Ravi Shankar