In 1956, he began to tour Europe and America playing Indian classical music. His association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison of The Beatles was well known.
Pandit Ravi Shankar engaged Western music by writing concerti for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s.
From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha. He was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna in 1999.
Pandit Ravi Shankar received three Grammy Awards. He continued to perform in the 2000s, often with his daughter Anoushka Shankar.
As news of 92-year-old Ravi Shankar breathing his last came in from California, US, messages started pouring in with melody queen Lata Mangeshkar and top musicians Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt condoling the death of the sitar legend.
“An era has passed away with Pandit Ravi Shankar. The nation joins me to pay tributes to his unsurpassable genius, his art and his humility,” the Prime Minister said.
Singh said that Ravi Shankar was “a national treasure and global ambassador of India's cultural heritage.”
Mourning the death, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar said India has lost a distinguished son.
