NEW DELHI (December 12, 2012)--Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar has died at the age of 92, India’s prime minister's office confirmed.

The office called him a "national treasure."

Shankar, the estranged father of Texas singer-songwriter Norah Jones, helped millions of classical, jazz and rock lovers in the West discover the centuries-old traditions of Indian music over an eight-decade career.

He was a hippie musical icon of the 1960s, played Woodstock and hobnobbed with The Beatles.

Beatle George Harrison labeled him "the godfather of world music."

He also pioneered the concept of the rock benefit with the 1971 Concert For Bangladesh.

Shankar collaborated with Harrison, violinist Yehudi Menuhin and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane as he worked to bridge the musical gap between the West and East.