Legendary Indian musician Ravi Shankar dies at 92

 NEW DELHI, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Legendary¹ Indian sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, who gained widespread international acclaim² due to his association with The Beatles, passed away at a hospital in San Diego in the U.S. state of California Wednesday (India time) .

He was 92 and is survived by his wife Sukanya and musician daughters, sitar player Anushka Shankar and singer Norah Jones, three grandchildren, and four great grandchildren.

"It is with heavy hearts we write to inform you that Pandit Ravi Shankar, husband, father, and musical soul, passed away today, " his wife Sukanya and daughter Anushka said in a joint³ statement.

The music doyen, whose health has been fragile for the past several years, was last week admitted to the Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego, where he underwent heart valve replacement⁴ surgery. But he failed to recover fully⁵ from the operation, his family said.

"Although it is a time for sorrow and sadness, it is also a time for all of us to give thanks and to be grateful that we were able to have him as a part of our lives. He will live forever in our hearts and in his music," the family statement said.

Shankar, once described as "the godfather of world music" by rock artiste George Harrison of The Beatles, was born in the northern Indian holy town of Varanasi on April 7, 1920, and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar.

He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. In 1956, he began to tour Europe and the United States playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching and performance. The music icon⁶, who lived between India and the United States, performed in the 2000s with his daughter Anuksha.

Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian⁷ honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999, and received three Grammy Awards.

1 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

2 acclaim   

v.向…欢呼，公认；n.欢呼，喝彩，称赞

参考例句：

• He was welcomed with great acclaim.他受到十分热烈的欢迎。
• His achievements earned him the acclaim of the scientific community.他的成就赢得了科学界的赞誉。

3 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

4 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

7 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。