He started learning training taleem in 1953 under Pandit Gyan Prakash Ghosh of Calcutta (now Kolkata), who pioneered the concept of tabla ensembles, employing various tables playing the same peieces; a tradition later taken forward by Shankar himself. His other gurus were Pt. Gyan Prakash Ghosh,Ustad Feroz Khan, Pandit Anath Nath Bose and Pandit Sudarshan Adhikari.
He started touring the US in 1960s with sarod maestro, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and won rave reviews, and over the years he toured with Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Sharan Rani, Pandit V. G. Jog. In India he has performed with vocalists such as Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Pandit Omkarnath Thakur, Pandit Vinayak Rao Patwardhan, Girija Devi and Smt. Akhtari Bai. During his stay abroad he also collaborated with artists like Greg Ellis, Pete Lockett and John Bergamo.
He has received awards like ITC Sangeet Research Academy award and the Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan award. Teaching tabla over three decades, presently he teaches in institutions at Kolkata, Paris and Bonn.
