Family Tree Tuesday – Ravi Shankar

Last Friday was Diwali (or Deepavali as it is called in Southern India), which is a holiday in India known as the festival of lights. It commemorates the return of Lord Rama along Sita and Lakshman from his fourteen-year-long exile and vanquishing the demon-king Ravana. In joyous celebration of the return of their king, the people of Ayodhya, the Capital of Rama, illuminated the kingdom with oil lamps and burst crackers (fireworks). Diwali is typically celebrated for about a week sometime between October – November (based in the lunar cycle).

We thought this might be a good opportunity to highlight an Indian family tree for this week’s Family Tree Tuesday.  So, today we celebrate Ravi Shankar and his contribution to music –both in the East and the West. 

He is the father of talented musicians, Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones. He was also once married to Annapurna Devi, who is also the daughter of Allauddin Khan and sister of Ustad Ali Khan.

You can also find Ravi included in one of the first Projects on Geni, The Beatles Project. He was added to the project due to his influence on George Harrison and the rest of the band back in the late 1960’s.

While he does not have a very large tree at the moment, perhaps you or someone in your family may be able to recall some of the names of his relatives and add them to his branch.