50 Years of Fascination With Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar, who died on Tuesday at age 92, spent much of his adult life outside India, earning generations of fans in the United States and Europe, where he inspired musicians, sparked movements and won adulation. On India Ink, our sister blog, Heather Timmons has culled the pages of The New York Times, which followed his career for more than 50 years. "For nearly three decades, ever since his first tour of the United States and Europe in the 1956-57 season, Ravi Shankar has served as India's unofficial ambassador for music," Donal Henahan wrote. And that was in September 1985. Read more of Heather's post from the archives here, and read Allan Kozinn's obituary of Ravi Shankar here.