Shiva Shankar Manandhar was a singer, music composer of Nepali songs and the hero in the first Nepali movie, Aama. For nearly a half century beginning from 1950 to late 1990, his name has probably been mentioned more often in books, journals, lectures and conversations about Nepalese music than any other musician.
Singing and composing music for songs of love, tragedy, devotion (bhajan) and patriotism, he pioneered many of the genres of the modern Nepali songs. He has composed music for around 1,200 Nepalese songs. He himself sang about three hundred songs. For these contributions Shankar was bestowed with dozens of prestigious national awards.
Shankar was recruited to the service of the state-owned Radio Nepal in 1951 by Bal Krishna Sama, the pre-eminent playwright of Nepal. Soon he was assigned with duty to explore and mentor new musical talents, supervise, and quality control the songs being recorded in the studio for radio broadcast.
Together with his colleague Nati Kaji, he made Radio Nepal an institution for breeding modern Nepalese music and songs. All Nepalese singers and musicians of the latter half of the twentieth century came into prominence through this institution. Radio Nepal fostered not only the in-country musical talents, but also motivated several prodigious musicians of Darjeeling (India), to blossom in Nepal. They included Ambar Gurung, Gopal Yonzan, Aruna Lama and several others.
While working at Radio Nepal, Shiva Shankar composed music for many prominent Nepalese singers. These included Tara Devi (singer), Mira Rana, Nirmala Shrestha, Gyanu Rana, Aruna Lama, Kunti Muktan, Ganga Malla, Puspa Nepali, Narayan Gopal, Prem Dhwoj, Yogesh Vaidhya, Udit Narayan, Dhruba KC, Manik Ratna, Deep Shrestha, Bhakta Raj, Bacchu Kailash, Rubi Joshi, Deepak Bajracharya, etc. He composed music for prominent lyricists such as Ram Man Trishit, Kiran Kharel, Bhabuk, Yadab Kharel, Laxman Lohani, and MBB Shah (Mahendra of Nepal). Performing for fifty years, he helped Nepalese music attain popularity in what was termed as the "Golden Age".
Besides creating popular melodies, he also experimented with innovations in Nepalese music. He demonstrated how the folk songs rendered with few simple musical instruments could be enriched with an ensemble of modern contemporary orchestra symphony. A trend of modernization with introduction of pop-style songs he started catalyzed the emergence of the present day full fledged Nepalese pop songs. Although he pioneered changes and innovation, he always advocated for preserving the unique essence of Nepalese style, so that Nepalese songs would not be overshadowed by foreign songs and music.
Shankar played the leading role of a "Lahure Dai" in the film Aama (Mother), the first Nepali feature movie produced in 1964 (2021 BS) by the Government of Nepal. However, he did not pursue an acting career except for a few cameo appearances in documentaries. Nevertheless, he composed music for several movies in the early days of the Nepalese film industry.
He was born to mother Ram Maya and father Man Bahadur on 22 February 1932 in a Manandhar household of the Newar community, in Pako, Newroad of Kathmandu city. Man Bahadur Manandhar was a volunteer music teacher in the local community, taught classical Newari songs to the youngsters. Shiva Shankar’s musical aspiration was probably inspired by his father’s community activity. Unfortunately his father died at very early age.
He completed secondary school education, but did not pursue any formal musical education before being established as a singer and music composer. In 1974, he pursued a graduate course on the Indian Classical music from the Kalanidhi Sangeet College in Kathmandu.
He took a job at Radio Nepal in May 1951 (2007 BS) and served there for the next 42 years. This was the period of his active creative life. For forty years in a row, he composed and sang hit songs. From 1987 to 1991 (2043-2047 BS), he was deputed as the Executive Director of the Ratna Recording Corporation. He retired from Radio Nepal in 1996 (2051 BS).
His post-retirement period coincided with the onset of commercialization in Nepalese music. He could not adapt into the glamour of commercialization and eschewed from making commercial music. As his contemporary colleagues in music, he remained virtually silent after retirement. In 2004, he fell gravely ill with terminal stage liver cancer. He died on November 14, 2004.
He was married to Badri Kumari Manandhar at the age of twenty four and has three sons: Gaurishankar, Rabi Shankar and Shashi Shankar. None of them followed career in music. Badri Kumari supported the family economically by running a family business. She died in September 1998.
First Place in the All Nepal Music Competition – 2019
Best Music Composition Awards – 2020, 2021, 2025 and 2027
Mahendra-Ratna Abhushan – 2022
Gorkha Dakshin Bahu 4th - 2035
Gunaraj Music Award - 2043
Trishaktipatta 3rd - 2053
Nepal Motion Picture Award – 2056
Supradipta Birendra Pajatantra Bhashkar 3rd – 2060
Image Life-time Achievement Award - 2058
Natikaji Memorial Award – 2061
Nepal Motion Picture Artists Union – 2050
Sadhana Samman by the Shadhana Art Foundation – 2054
Golden Jubilee Samman of Radio Nepal – 2056
Nepal Samman by the Sagarmatha Academy – 2057
Kathmandu Municipality Ward 13 – 2057
Ahwan Organization - 2057
Mahadev Samman by the Keshav-Sushma Bhajan Guthi – 2058
Nepal Motion Picture Artists Union – 2058
Mahendra Memorial Committee - 2058
Kamal English Boarding School - 2059
Central Committee of Manandhar Union – 2061
World Peace Bhagbat Bhajanashram – 2061
Sangeet Sadhak Samman by the Nepal Sanskritik Sangh
Aama (Theme song, with Nati Kaji)
Manko Bandh (with Nati Kaji)
Kumari (with Chandra Raj)
Pachis Basanta (with Nati Kaji)
Shanti Deep (with Nati Kaji)
Broadway songs (Geeti Natak) and albums of situational songs
Ashirbad ("Farewell to Bride") - Lyrics: Laxman Lohani Nalapanima ("Battle at the Nalapani Fort") - Lyrics: Bal Krishna Sama Parikshya ("Ordeal") - Lyrics: Tulsi Dibas Swongu Nagu ("Three Stars") - Lyrics: Durga Lal Shrestha Sulochana (Based on an epic poem) - Lyrics: Shyam Das Vaishnav (Not Staged)
