Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India

encyclopedia

MUSIC

SITAR

The sitar is the most popular stringed in-

strument of north India. It has existed in its

present form for approximately 700 years. It

developed from the Veena, the ancient Indian

musical instrument. It contained only three

strings at first, so it was called seh-tar (Persian

for three strings).

The sitar of today is fashioned from sea-

soned gourd and teakwood. It has a track of

20 metal frets with six or seven main playing

strings above them and 19 sympathetic strings.

The instrument is tuned to the raga being

played. The main strings are plucked by a

wire plectrum worn on the index finger on the

right hand.

The main parts of a sitar are :

Tumba- round or flat gourd (belly or

sound box)

Tabli - a piece of thin wood that covers the

cut portion of Tumba.

3. Gulu - the shoulder (skandha) i.e., the

middle portion.

4. Danda - the keyboard of the instrument,

on which the frets minimum 17 and maxi-

mum 19 in number are fitted with guts on

it.

Generally sitar is available in the follow-

ing three sizes :

1. Small size sitar - width of the tabli 10 to

12", length of danda about 3 feet.

2. Medium size sitar - width of the tabli 12 to

14", length of danda about 3V

feet. Width

of the danda about 4".

3. Big size sitar or Surabahara - width of the

tabli 14 to 16", length of the danda 4 feet

slightly above.

Surabahara

: A stringed instrument of

northern India. It was the invention of late

Ustad Omrao Khan of Patiala, a renowned

veena player of second half of 19th C. It has 17

frets. Its body is made of teak, deodar and chir

wood. There are seven strings - four of steel

and remaining of brass or copper.

STRINGED INSTRUMENTS

Till about a century ago the sitar was not

even considered respectable. It was the

Rudra

Veena

been

which was the favoured instru-

ment. The sitar came into its own in the later

half of the 18th century in the hands of great

masters like Amir Khan, Barkatullah Khan,

Bahadur Khan, Masit Khan and Gulam Raza.

Tastes in music were also changing with

dh.ru-

pad

singing and pakhawaj giving way to the

khayal and the tabla. A lyrical approach began

to be preferred which resulted in the music of

the sitar gaining in popularity over the sono-

rous veena. Masit Khan and Gulam Raza were

the creators of styles which form the main

bases of today's playing.

SAROD

The sarod is an ancient stringed instru-

ment. In India many stringed musical instru-

ments were known as Veenas, such as Shat-

tantri veena, Rudra veena, Kachhapi veena,

Vipanehi veena, Chitra veena. Some scholars

are of the view that the sarod is the Chitra

veena or Kachhapi veena of earlier times.

Sculpture from the 2nd to 6th century AD and

paintings from the 5th to 15th century AD

indicate th6 Sarod's prevalence from Nagarju-

nakonda and Amaravati in the South, Ajanta

in the West, Gandhara in the north-west as

well as western Uttar Pradesh and Madhya

Pradesh.

The sarod in use today has 21 to 25 metal

strings of varying thickness. Of these, the

four main playing strings carry the melody,

two (called Chikari strings) serve to accentu-

ate the percussion rhythms and four drone

strings are tuned to the chief (dominant) notes

of the chosen raga. The remaining strings are

sympathetic strings for resonance and are

placed below the main strings and are tuned

chromatically to resonate with the chosen

raga. Every note which is played has a string

tuned to it for resonance. The plectrum used

for plucking the strings is triangular in shape

and is made of duly seasoned coconut shell.

The first string is of steel and it is tuned to

Madhyama or Panchama (flat F of G) the

second wire is also of steel and it is tuned to

Sadja of the Madhya Sthana (G), the third

wire is of brass. It is tuned to Mandra

Madhyama (F flat), the last string is of brass

and it is tuned to the Sadja of the Mandra

Sthana (C).

Unlike the sitar, the sarod has no frets or

any other markings and therefore it has to

remain in the correct position in the lap of the

performer so that, while playing, the accuracy

of the fingering on the steel plates, which has

no frets is not disturbed; otherwise the fingers

would produce faulty notes.

The performer is able to produce accurate

notes after years of intensive practice and

knowledge of correct fingering technique.

The sarod has a deep and rich tone and is

easily able to blend with that of other instru-

ments. As such, it is being used as an impor-

tant instrument in Indian orchestras.

Born in 1921, Pandit Ravi Shankar, the

sitar maestro, brother of the celebrated dancer

Uday Shankar, became a disciple of Ustad Al-

lauddin Khan. He remained with him for six

years at Maihar in Central India. When the

Beatle George Harrison came to India as his

disciple he became an international figure,

taking Indian music to the West. He has at-

tempted a fusion of the two types of music. He

has attempted orchestration as Director of the

National Orchestra and conductor of the AIR

Vadya Vrinda. The only Indian to be men-

tioned in the World Encylopedia of Music, he

raised 25 million dollars through a concert for

Bangladesh. He has been described by Yehudi

Menhuin as "one of the world's greatest mu-

sicians". Abdul Halim Jaffar Khan and Vil-

ayat Khan are also sitar maestros.

Other Eminent Sitar players

: Yusuf Ali,

Wahid Khan, Mushtaq Ali Khan, Abdul Halim

Jaffer Khan (L), Imrat Hussain Khan (also

Surbahar) (L), Balram Pathak, Uma Shankar

Mishra (L), Nikhil Banerjee.