Mumbai, Oct 13 : Annapurna Devi, doyenne of classical Hindustani music, died at at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai early Saturday. She was 92.

She was suffering from age related issues for the past few years, a spokesperson of Annapurna Devi Foundation, Mumbai said. She was declared dead at 3.51 am, hospital officials said. She was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan award.

'Ma', as she was popularly addressed, was born in Madhya Pradesh's Maihar town to Ustad 'Baba' Allauddin Khan and Madina Begum. She was the youngest of four children, the spokesperson said.

World renowned maestro, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, was her sibling, the spokesperson added.

Annapurna Devi was a disciple of her father whose inestimable contribution to Indian music resulted in the Senia-Maihar gharana. Her training started early when she was around five years old and she graduated from the sitar to her chosen instrument, the surbahar.

She remained a recluse for most of her life. Much of her time was dedicated to teaching a small but select group of students. She was married to sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar and had a son, Shubhendra 'Shubho' Shankar, who passed away in 1992.

In 1982, she married Rooshikumar Pandya, a management consultant. Pandya passed away in 2013.

Her students include Aashish Khan (sarod), Amit Bhattacharya (sarod), Bahadur Khan (sarod), Basant Kabra (sarod), Hariprasad Chaurasia (bansuri), Jotin Bhattacharya (sarod), Nikhil Banerjee (sitar), Nityanand Haldipur (bansuri), Peter Klatt (sitar), Pradeep Barot (sarod), Sandhya Phadke (sitar), Saswatti Saha (sitar), Sudhir Phadke (sitar), Suresh Vyas (sarod), the spokesperson said.

 

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Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.

The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.

"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.

The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.

There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.

Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.

The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.