Mohan Veena player, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt won the ____________ Award in the year 1994.

Correct — A. Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt won a Grammy Award in 1994 for the album A Meeting by the River, recorded with the American guitarist Ry Cooder in the world-music category.

The Mohan Veena named in the stem is his own instrument: an archtop guitar he rebuilt with added sympathetic and drone strings so that it sustains and slides like a Hindustani instrument.

The record is a duet and the award was made to both players, so the win is Bhatt's as much as Cooder's.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Sangita Kalanidhi — The Sangita Kalanidhi is conferred by the Madras Music Academy and belongs to the Carnatic tradition. Bhatt is a Hindustani musician, and this is not the 1994 award in his record.
• (c)
  Oscar — The Oscar is given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for work in film. An instrumental world-music album falls entirely outside what it recognises.
• (d)
  Sangeet Natak Akademi — The Sangeet Natak Akademi Award is India's national honour for the performing arts, so it sounds right for a classical musician — but the award attached to 1994 here is the Grammy.

The Mohan Veena is a modified archtop guitar developed by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. It is played across the lap, and the extra sympathetic and drone strings give a Western instrument the resonance a Hindustani raga needs.

His 1994 Grammy came from a cross-cultural collaboration, which is the recurring shape of Indian Grammy wins — an Indian musician recording with a Western artist for a world-music category.

Culture questions link three handles: the artist, the instrument they are identified with, and one award with a year.

Key facts

• Vishwa Mohan Bhatt won a Grammy in 1994 for A Meeting by the River, made with Ry Cooder.
• The Mohan Veena is a modified archtop guitar he developed for Hindustani classical playing.
• Sangita Kalanidhi is conferred by the Madras Music Academy in the Carnatic tradition.

Common traps

• Assuming any major award to an Indian classical musician must be a Padma award or a Sangeet Natak Akademi award.
• Attaching the Grammy to the better-known name in the collaboration rather than to Bhatt.

No directly related past PYQ was found.