Hundreds honor Ravi Shankar in California

A prayer offering by Dr. Nandakumar of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan opens the program at Self Realization Fellowship grounds for the Ravi Shankar Memorial in Encinitas, Calif. on Dec. 20, 2012. / FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

Friends and family gathered to celebrate the life of legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar at a public memorial service near his San Diego-area home.

17 Photos

Ravi Shankar: 1920-2012

19 Photos

Ravi Shankar Memorial

The musician was remembered Thursday as an unfailingly generous teacher with a gentle spirit and sense of humor whose music fostered understanding between East and West.

Conductor Zubin Mehta said he felt like a "little crumb" listening to Shankar play. Olivia Harrison said Shankar helped a young George Harrison achieve a more meaningful life.

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Ravi Shankar's daughter, Norah Jones, on dad's "genius"

Shankar's daughters, singer Norah Jones and Grammy-nominated sitarist Anoushka Shankar, were in the audience at the Self-Realization Fellowship center in Encinitas, the oceanfront suburb where the musician lived for the last two decades.

Shankar died last week at age 92.