The sitar ustad or master had continued to perform, usually with his glamorous daughter Anoushka, who is a bestselling musician in her own right, and he gave his last concert just five weeks ago. His other daughter from a previous relationship is the American folk soul singer Nora Jones. Pandit Shankar's passing was mourned by the Indian prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh who said he was a "national treasure and global ambassador of India's cultural heritage." His death marked the passing of an era. "The nation joins me to pay tributes to his unsurpassable genius, his art and his humility," he added. A.R Rahman, the Grammy-winning composer, said "Indian Classical Music has lost its chief ambassador ... May God bless his soul." Although he remained hugely popular and admired in India, where he continued to give free concerts, his legacy is the export of Indian classical music to the West through his collaborations with Yehudi Menuhin and the Beatles, through whom he inspired the 1960s psychedelic sound. Roger McGuinn, the founder of the Byrds, earlier told the Telegraph how he had introduced the late George Harrison to Ravi Shankar's sitar music at a party at Zsa Zsa Gabor's Bel Air mansion in 1965. They were both on LSD at the time, he said, but the sound inspired Harrison and the Beatles to travel to India where they met Pt Shankar and took sitar lessons from him. The influence was heard on their Rubber Soul, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Rubber Soul albums, and also inspired artists ranging from the Rolling Stones to Stevie Wonder. Although their meeting and collaboration opened new audiences to his music, the Pandit later voiced resentment towards the Beatles for turning him into "pop star" and surrounding him with stoned hippies. All four came. All of them were very sweet but George was so special. He would corner me and ask me about the relation between spirituality and music, religion and music. He met me a few times and then I started teaching him. And that news spread all over. That did help me. When people say that George Harrison made me famous, that is true in a way. Then what happened was that I became a pop star all of a sudden. All young people, bearded, long hair, wearing beads and not normal. They would behave like Naga sannyasis [cannabis-smoking holy men] if they were permitted. And I was not happy at all. I would tell George, 'What have you done?'," he said. He refused to perform at the 1967 Montreal Pop Festival, the beginning of the Summer of Love, after The Who famously destroyed their instruments on stage, but he later said he had not been able to resist the 'free love' of that era. Pt Shankar was born Robendra Chowdhury in Varanasi in 1920 and began his career as a dancer in his brother's troupe which toured Europe in the1930s. He trained under Indian classical musician Allauddin Khan and later came to the attention of Yehudi Menuhin, with whom he became a lifelong collaborator. He won three Grammy awards, including one for his contribution to George Harrison's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. He was a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire and a recipient of the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. He last appeared in concert at Long Beach, California on November 4 with his daughter Anoushka in what fans described as a perfect performance. India's ambassador to the United States Nirupama Rao said it had been "particularly poignant" and suggested she would take over his mantle. Anoushka and he played together in perfect unison. A torch was passed," she said.