Premier Manmohan Singh described him as "a global ambassador of India's cultural heritage and a national treasure." "An era has passed away with Pandit Ravi Shankar," Singh said on the microblogging site Twitter, using an Indian honorific. Meanwhile, the Grammy Awards announced that Shankar will be honoured posthumously with a lifetime achievement award in February 2013.
Parliament observed two minutes of silence in honour of Shankar, who died Tuesday, five days after undergoing heart-valve replacement surgery in San Diego, the Ravi Shankar Foundation said. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, or Jewel of India, in 1999 and served as an unelected member of the upper chamber of Parliament from 1986 to 1992. He was based since the 1990s in Encinitas, California, with his wife Sukanya.