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Annapurna Devi (born 1926) is a reclusive surbahar (bass sitar) player and music teacher in the North Indian classical tradition. She is the daughter of Allauddin Khan and ex-wife of his student, Ravi Shankar.

When Allauddin's first daughter, Jahanara, got married, and a jealous mother-in-law burnt her tanpura, Allauddin decided not to train his other daughters. One day, however, he came home to discover Annapurna teaching her brother Ali Akbar Khan, and her talent made him change his mind.

Annapurna became a very accomplished surbahar player of the Maihar gharana (school). She married her father's sitar student, Ravi Shankar; she was 14, he 21. At this point, she received a Hindu name from the Maharaja of Maihar and converted to Hinduism. ^[1] The marriage lasted some twenty years, and produced a son, Shubhendra Shankar (1942–1992). Early on, the couple would give duet concerts, but Annapurna's performances were soon to end. Rumour has it Ravi Shankar was jealous of her playing and made her vow never to perform in public again – in an authorised biography^[2], Annapurna has said it was "worse than that", but declined to comment further. Be that as it may, the marriage ended some years later in divorce.

Since then, Annapurna has lived in an upper-class Mumbai neighbourhood, rarely leaving her flat. The doorbell carries instructions that

"1) The door will not be opened on Mondays and Fridays.
2) Please ring the bell only thrice.
3) If no one opens, please leave your name and address. Thank you very much. Inconvenience is regretted."

Here, she has taught a select few students in late-night sessions, some famous, some not: her nephew Aashish Khan, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nityanand Haldipur, Sudhir Phadke, Pradeep Barot, Rajiv Taranath, Basant Kabra, her younger gurubhai Nikhil Banerjee.Occasionally in the early seventies she taught Kokila Rai the wife of the late Sarod player Vasant Rai. She is married to her student Rooshikumar Pandya, who learns sitar from her and has previously studied with Ali Akbar Khan. Though her music may be heard only in a couple of very old recordings (ragas Kaushi Kanada and Manj Khamaj, and a surbahar duet in Yaman with Ravi Shankar are available, though not commercially), she continues to be thought of as a classical instrumentalist of the highest calibre.

↑ Unveiling the Mystique of a Reclusive Artiste, Jaya Ramanathan, The Hindu, 28 June 2005.

↑ Swapan Kumar Bondyopadhyay: An Unheard Melody: Annapurna Devi – an Authorised Biography, Roli, New Delhi, 2005. ISBN 81-7436-399-8.

• The Vijaya Parrikar Library of Indian Classical Music has some old amateur recordings of Annapurna Devi's surbahar playing on-line.
• Annapurna Devi by Mohan Nadkarni