Ravi Shankar Centre clarifies sitarist Rishabh Sharma isn't his disciple
The Ravi Shankar Centre has set the record straight: sitarist Rishabh Rikhiram Sharma isn't a formal disciple of the late Pandit Ravi Shankar.
Director Amitava Ghosh explained that the youngest disciples are actually Shubhendra Rao and Anoushka Shankar, while Nishad Gadgil and Dr Scott Eisman were his last.
Centre's statement in detail
Ghosh clarified that after a few lessons with Pandit Shankar (ending March 9, 2012), there was no ongoing or remote teaching for Sharma.
An informal string-tying ceremony did happen at his father's request, but it wasn't official—no priest, no ceremonial thread, the only person from the Centre present, other than Guruji and his wife, was senior disciple Parimal Sadaphal.
Most of Sharma's training came from Sadaphal and Arun Bharat Ram.
The Centre said its aim was to correct inaccurate timelines, wrong perceptions around the nature and amount of instruction given by Guruji, and confusion around the term disciple.