Ravi Shankar — Studies with Allauddin Khan, Maihar

From 1938 to 1944, the young Ravi Shankar lived and studied in Maihar, a town in what is now Madhya Pradesh, under the legendary musician Allauddin Khan — one of the most revered figures in Indian classical music history. Shankar had abandoned a promising career as a dancer with his brother Uday Shankar's troupe to dedicate himself entirely to the sitar under Allauddin Khan's gurukul method, which required him to live in his teacher's home and immerse himself in music as a complete way of life. This period forged Shankar into the musician who would later introduce Indian classical music to the Western world.

Ravi Shankar was born on April 7, 1920 in Varanasi. His studies in Maihar were intensive and transformative — Allauddin Khan was regarded as the most complete musician in India, a master of dozens of instruments and the founder of the Maihar gharana (school of music). Shankar later described these years as the most important of his life. He went on to collaborate with George Harrison of The Beatles, Yehudi Menuhin, and Philip Glass, performing at the Monterey Pop Festival (1967) and Woodstock (1969) and bringing ragas to audiences that had never encountered them.

Maihar is home to Allauddin Khan's ancestral residence and the Maihar Band music school he founded, which continues to operate. The town has a small museum dedicated to Allauddin Khan's legacy and is a pilgrimage destination for students of Indian classical music. Ravi Shankar passed away on December 11, 2012 in San Diego, California.