Mumbai: A dissonant build up of claims and counter-claims, sharp enough to snap a sitar string, has engulfed the rarefied world of Hindustani classical music. On Friday, the Delhi-based Ravi Shankar Centre, dedicated to preserving the legacy of Pandit Ravi Shankar, issued a measured but sharp rebuttal to sitarist Rishabh Rikhiram Sharma’s claims of being the maestro’s last disciple.
The 26-year-old US-based Sharma is a rising star in the music world and is known for his fusion of Hindustani classical with modern electronic elements. He has performed at the White House when Joe Biden was president, and is at present on a 10-city India tour called ‘Sitar for Mental Health.’ A flamboyant musician who often mixes spoken verses with his sitar playing has routinely described himself in his interviews and on his website as the “youngest and last disciple of maestro Ravi Shankar.”
The Ravi Shankar Centre which also represents panditji’s family and his disciples, has objected to Sharma’s claim. “Guruji’s musical legacy deserves precision, and the centre, by releasing this statement, seeks to correct incorrect timelines, misperceptions around the nature and amount of instruction given by Guruji and confusion around the term disciple,” read the statement before going to clarify that Pt Ravi Shankar’s “youngest disciples” were “Subhendra Rao who began learning from the age of four and later lived and trained with Guruji for approximately ten years; and Anoushka Shankar who began learning from the age of 7.” As far as the claim of being the last disciple was concerned, the centre clarified that they included “Nishad Gadgil and Dr Scott Eisman”.
Sharma has widely disseminated photographs of Pandit Ravi Shankar tying a ganda around his wrist as proof of his discipleship. In its note the Centre clarified: “On January 3, 2012, at the persuasion of Rishabh’s father, and due to affection for the child, an informal string-tying took place at the Centre between Guruji and Rishabh. Such a ceremony was neither conducted as formal Ganda-bandhan nor was it conducted according to traditional custom…Other than Guruji and his wife, one of Guruji’s senior disciples Pariman Sadaphal, was present…Guruji did not conduct a formal initiation discourse…The mentioned ceremony was entirely impromptu and the event has been retrospectively amplified beyond what occurred.”
Parimal Sadaphal told HT that a “thread-tying ceremony indeed did take place,” but he refused to speculate on the text and sub-text of the Centre’s rebuttal. “I do not want to make any statement besides what transpired before my eyes and get drawn into any controversy,” he said. “Guruji did tie the thread on Rishabh and went on to ask me to teach him —and I did so,” he said.
Sources close to the Sharma family recalled Pandit Ravi Shankar attending Rishabh’s performance at Delhi’s Kamani Auditorium on 10th February 2012 as proof of his affection for the boy. “He introduced the young musician warmly,” a family source said, recalling Panditji’s words on stage: “I’ve just had this new, wonderful young boy become my student, and I’ve given him a few lessons.”
“Why would Guruji lie?” said the source?
That question now hangs in the air like an unresolved note, and goes to the heart of what constitutes discipleship in the Hindustani classical tradition.
The Centre, for its part, underlines that between January 3rd and March 9th, 2012, Guruji — along with Sadaphal — gave only “a few classes.” After his return to the US on 9th March 2012, it says, there were no further lessons, phone calls, or supervision. Soon after, the maestro’s health deteriorated sharply. The implication is clear: in the parampara of Hindustani music, a handful of lessons does not a disciple make.
Musicologists caution against reducing the debate to personality politics. Scholar Jayanthi Sundaram Nayak notes that in the guru–shishya tradition, the word ‘disciple’ is not ornamental. “It is earned over years of immersive, rigorous commitment — not conferred by a few lessons and a concert introduction,” she says. “But not all gurus have necessarily performed thread-tying rituals either.”
The Centre itself acknowledges that Guruji shared long-standing ties with Rishabh’s family, who are respected sitar makers and part of the broader musical community. Their presence at festivals and events was not incidental. The relationship, clearly, was real.
But was it pedagogical? Formal? Enduring? That is the shruti being contested.
The source close to the family who spoke to HT on the condition of anonymity, raised questions about the timing of the Ravi Shankar Centre’s damning letter. “The recent India tour of Anoushka Shankar saw many venues go half empty despite getting a known face like Arijit Singh to jam with her. Rishabh, on the other hand, has found a connect with Gen Z who buy out entire concerts as soon as announced,” they alleged before going on to draw another, age-old comparison about discipleship. “It’s like Arjun and Eklavya—the gifted outsider being denied formal recognition.”
Rishabh Sharma himself was not available for comment, and his father, Sanjay Sharma, told HT over text from Mauritius: “I am a layperson and unfamiliar with technical media terminology. All official statements, if any, shall be issued exclusively through my son’s management formally.”