Of all the astonishing things that happened in the 1960s, the transformation of Ravi Shankar into global superstar and hippy hero is one of the hardest to explain to anyone who wasn’t there. Yet Oliver Craske’s superlative biography — the fruit of 130 interviews, exhaustive research on three continents and six years’ writing — achieves that and much more. Shankar’s protean 80-year career as mesmerising boy-dancer and virtuoso instrumentalist, joyous composer and inexhaustible Casanova is narrated in revelatory detail ... Still writing an opera on his deathbed at 92, the perpetually impish Shankar lived in a kind of wonderland conjured up by his musical genius and the effect it had on people. Craske evokes that world superbly; a masterly chronicle of a life teeming with all-too-human incident but heavenly inspiration.

In Oliver Craske, Shankar has attracted a biographer who understands the intricacies of classical Indian music and the labyrinths of a culture that believes there’s no enterprise that can’t be improved by being made more complicated – religion, language, family trees, music, railway timetables. His portrait of a restless, often melancholic genius is appropriately exhaustive, involving 130 fresh interviews and 100 pages of credits. There is much to explain ... Craske handles the niceties of Shankar’s personal life with diplomacy while staying focused on his subject’s musical mission and lifelong hunger for spiritual fulfilment. He wears his expertise lightly and his passion on his sleeve; a winning combination for a definitive work.

... extraordinary ... This is not a hagiographic portrait of a spiritual icon but a remarkably human life story, defined by familial failures, seething rivalries, physical frailty and relentless ambition. For anyone who has been moved by a Shankar recording, this is a portrait of the man behind the music and the unchartered waters of Shankar’s quest to save Indian classical music from extinction. With his elegant writing and extensive research, Craske manages to shatter Shankar’s cliche Eastern sage persona and rebuild his reputation as one of the giants of world music. Indian Sun transcends its subject by becoming something larger than a narrow timeline of an undeniably large life. In using Shankar as an axis, Craske has written a broader cultural history of music and hyphenated artists in the 20th century — a measured rumination on the possibilities and the price of artistic ambition ... For new generations of artists, Craske’s biography offers a kind of road map for those interested in drawing from other cultures but also for artists of minority backgrounds searching, at times meandering, through mainstream majorities that may not understand or see them ... Craske’s biography is a celebration easily experienced in the confines of home. With its annotated notes and its descriptions of specific recordings, Shankar’s music still holds the power to both electrify and soothe as it once did in the 1960s. Accompanied by easily assembled playlists from Shankar’s extraordinary back catalogue, this is a beautiful book, as resplendent as its subject’s music and life.

... a large book teeming with larger-than-life characters ... Craske keeps the music itself very much in focus ... This book abounds with amusing (and telling anecdotes), but Craske never loses sight of what he is doing—there is plenty of serious analysis along with the anecdotes, and it is always accessible to a general reader ... Craske makes sure that readers have a properly rounded-out portrait of Ravi Shankar, perhaps for the first time. There are detailed chapters on Shankar’s career before he became a star in the West, and this story needed to be told ... Craske also gives us a detailed and sympathetic portrait Shankar the man, a complex and sometimes puzzling person ... Ravi Shankar is fortunate to have had such a biographer as Oliver Craske, a candid but judicious friend and no hero-worshipper—Indian Sun is likely to be the definitive biography of Ravi Shankar for many years to come.

... gives us a superb trove of detail, some of it astonishing. Part of its impressive story-building is the result of Mr. Craske’s conversations with everyone alive who knew Shankar well. It has helped, too, that Mr. Craske collaborated with the Indian superstar on his autobiography, published in 1997 ... Mr. Craske is at his best when writing about the least-emphasized aspects of Shankar’s career ... Yet the book excels, too, in those areas of which we’re already aware. Mr. Craske is eloquent on the appeal of the music itself, and explains superbly how the Indian and Western classical idioms are so unlike each other.

This first authorised biography is the product of 25 years’ research and interviews. For fans of Shankar and Indian classical, Oliver Craske’s mighty work will surely be a delight ... 'Now I am the music,' Shankar said in 2012, months before his death, and it is in his emotional playing that he lives on. Craske does him justice as a performer and composer: Shankar leaves a complex and enduring legacy that will be unpicked further by future disciples of his craft.

Writing such a penetrating portrait requires the ability to mirror Shankar’s lifelong dedication to cultural conversation, a task that is at one level impossible – as with all authentic translation. And yet, this book does a great deal to bridge the gap, and describe the challenge that Raviji (as he was known to those around him) faced in choosing to connect two very different worlds: the East, where divine presence infuses all thought and action, and the West, where a more materialistic outlook has held sway for centuries ... Craske is a very fluent, sober and clear writer.

Indian Sun is a hefty book, but it moves lightly. Craske worked with Shankar on his second autobiography in English, Raga Mala, and this is very much an authorised take, including lengthy quotes from Shankar’s family and friends. But Craske recounts fairly the criticisms of Shankar in his own country, and his sometimes strained relationships with other musicians. He also explores his complicated and extensive love life in detail.

Indian Sun is the first biography of Shankar. It will probably be the definitive work for now, though it may not be the best introduction to Shankar’s life and work ... Craske allows Shankar to speak for himself and to analyze himself. Shankar is surprisingly insightful about the emotional pain caused by his absent father, his many relationships with women from all over the world, and his complex interactions with his two daughters, Norah Jones and Anoushka, from two different mothers, both of whom went on to become successful musicians ... Indian Sun is long on psychiatry, but not quite long enough on contemporary history. Still, Craske points out that Shankar’s star began to rise at about the same time that India became an independent country ... Indian Sun would make Shankar himself proud.

Very few musicians merit a biography of 600-plus pages, but such is the case for sitarist, composer, and teacher Ravi Shankar. Craske, who worked closely with Shankar on his 1997 autobiography Raga Mala, covers every aspect of the artist’s life and work, paying close attention to Shankar’s personal and cultural relationship to India, with early chapters detailing his childhood and initial career as a dancer proving particularly evocative ...Compelling, informative, and the definitive book on this musical legend.

... sprawling, ably written ... musicologically rich, sometimes technical ... In this authoritative, slightly overlong portrait, Shankar emerges as an outwardly gentle perfectionist who was not without complications, especially his restless habit of moving from one romantic partner to another. Of course, fans and admirers won’t be bothered ... The definitive life of the sitar master.