Sitar

Persian names, Indian lutes, an uncertain path

Ask where the sitar came from and two stories appear. One credits the poet and courtier Amir Khusrau, who lived from the thirteenth into the fourteenth century, with inventing it. This is legend: no contemporary document supports it, and scholars treat it as a tradition that grew later. Historians generally agree on something less tidy. Lutes from Persia and Central Asia, including the three-stringed setar (whose name means three strings), arrived in North India over centuries and merged with local traditions of stringed instruments.

The modern sitar seems to have taken shape in the period when the Mughal court was declining, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, though the dating is imprecise. Some museum examples from the mid-nineteenth century lack sympathetic strings altogether, and rhythm strings known as chikari appear to have been added around the same time, with sympathetic strings following later. The instrument’s gradual development went hand in hand with changes in taste, patronage and the ways Hindustani music was performed.

Gourd, teak and a fretboard that moves

A sitar begins with a large gourd, cut and dried to form the resonator, which is covered with a thin wooden soundboard. A hollow neck of toon or teak rises from it, often with a second, smaller gourd near the top that adds resonance. A sitar may measure well over a metre in length; one in a college collection measures about 128 centimetres, and a nineteenth-century tortoise-shaped type in London, from Patna, is 115 centimetres.

What makes the sitar distinctive is the arrangement of strings and frets. About six or seven main strings pass over curved metal frets tied on with thread, so the player can shift them to suit a particular raga, a flexibility the fixed frets of a guitar do not offer. Several chikari strings, mostly tuned as drones, sit beside them. Below the frets run eleven to thirteen sympathetic strings, reached through small pegs in the neck and set to the notes of the raga. Total string count therefore varies, commonly between eighteen and twenty-one.

The buzz that blooms

Much of the sitar’s sound originates at the bridge. The main bridge, called the jawari, is a broad, carefully shaped piece of bone or similar material with a gently curved top. A plucked string does not leave it cleanly; it grazes the surface, which makes the note bloom with a bright, buzzing overtone. Makers and players refine the bridge with files and thin threads slipped under the strings until the string releases as a sustained shimmer. Even small changes alter the colour.

Sympathetic strings, often called taraf or tarab, add a second layer. They are tuned to the pitches of the raga and are never plucked, yet they begin to vibrate on their own whenever a related note sounds above them. The effect is like a room that answers. Together with the chikari drones, they create an aura around each melodic note, which continues after the player’s hand has moved on.

A tonic chosen, not given

Hindustani music has no fixed reference pitch like concert A. The performer selects a tonic, Sa, and tunes the strings relative to it. Because the sitar is not built around a single set of pitches, sympathetic strings are retuned for each raga, and frets are moved to suit its scale. The main strings typically cover about three octaves, from a low bass string, called the kharaj, to high notes played on the top string. Tuning arrangements differ among players and regional schools.

Bending a string sideways across a fret, a technique called meend, can raise the pitch by several scale steps in a single glide, so a sitar can cover notes higher than the frets alone would allow. Its timbre shifts across this span. The lowest strings are dark and resonant, the middle rich and singing, and the highest thin and brilliant. That gliding, vocal quality is one reason sitar music is often compared to singing, although players emphasise the instrument’s own idiom.

Sitting low, plucking with wire

Players sit cross-legged on the floor with the instrument tilted diagonally across the body, the gourd resting against the foot or the lap. The right index finger wears a wire plectrum, the mizrab, which strikes the strings in short, sharp downward and upward strokes. The left hand stops the strings on the frets and pulls them sideways to bend notes, while the fingers also vary attack and emphasis. Many players also strike the chikari strings for a rhythmic pulse.

A full performance is structured rather than fixed. It normally begins with alap, a slow, unmetered exploration of the raga, without percussion, in which each note is approached and lingered upon. Jor adds a steady pulse, and jhala is a rapid strumming of the drone strings that raises the excitement. A composition then enters in a rhythmic cycle, or tala, with a tabla player matching and answering the soloist. Improvisation within those rules is the core of the art.

Two bodies, many lineages

Sitars vary by region, maker and school. Workshops in centres such as Kolkata, Varanasi and Miraj have developed their own preferences for gourd shape, decoration and string layout. One common contrast is between instruments with a second gourd and ones without, and another between different numbers of sympathetic strings. The kachua sitar, named for its tortoise shape and with a rounded back, is a regional form; one from Patna in the Horniman Museum has five main tuning pegs and carved, painted decoration.

Related instruments include the surbahar, a larger, deeper-toned relative played in slow, meditative styles, and the electric sitar, an electric guitar-like instrument fitted with a buzzing bridge so that a guitarist can approximate the sitar’s colour. Musicians also distinguish approaches to playing: one emphasises a singing quality (gayaki), the other swift, plucked virtuosity (tantrakari). Both are methods within a living tradition, taught from teacher to student across generations, not fixed formulas.

Raga in company

In concert the sitar most often appears with a tabla, which keeps the rhythmic cycle, and a tanpura, a long-necked drone lute that sustains the tonic and fifth throughout. The pairing of soloist and drummer is marked by dialogue, with the tabla player echoing or playing against the soloist’s patterns, particularly in the final, fast sections. Listeners who know the tradition follow the cycle of beats as closely as the melody, waiting for the moment when both players arrive together on the first beat of the cycle.

From the mid-twentieth century the sitar became known beyond South Asia, largely through the tours and recordings of Ravi Shankar, who introduced Hindustani music to new audiences in Europe and North America. Some pop and rock musicians of the 1960s adopted its sound, and composers have written for it in concert and film settings. Yet its home remains the raga: a melodic framework of notes, characteristic phrases and moods, associated with a time of day or season.

A fragile instrument that travels

A sitar combines dried gourd, thin wood, bone and dozens of strings, and few parts tolerate rough handling. Humidity and sudden temperature changes can crack the gourd or loosen the soundboard. Players protect it in a fitted hard case and avoid resting it on the frets or leaving it leaning against a wall. Travelling with a sitar requires planning, since the long neck is especially vulnerable.

Routine care centres on the bridge and strings. A worn or incorrectly shaped jawari dulls the tone, and skilled makers or players refinish it when needed. Strings and threads are replaced when they lose brightness. Sympathetic strings must be retuned often, and tuning pegs should be turned slowly to avoid snapping a string. The frets, fastened with thread, are adjusted to the raga being played, which is part of the instrument’s ordinary upkeep.

Small observations

• The name sitar is usually traced to the Persian word for a three-stringed instrument, though a modern sitar has many more strings.
• Where a Koto player slides bridges to change scale, a sitar player moves frets and retunes sympathetic strings, so both adapt one instrument to many modes.
• Some nineteenth-century sitars lack sympathetic strings, showing that the instrument’s form has continued to change.
• A museum sitar may be decorated with painted flowers, gilding or inlaid bone, making the instrument a work of craft as well as sound.

Terms used in this entry

alap

The slow, unmetered opening section in which a raga is introduced.

chikari

Extra strings, usually tuned as drones, that are strummed for rhythmic accents.

jawari

The broad, slightly curved bridge that gives the sitar its buzzing resonance.

jhala

A fast, rhythmic strumming section featuring the drone strings.

meend

A gliding bend of a string across a fret that connects one pitch to another.

mizrab

The wire plectrum worn on the right index finger.

raga

A melodic framework in Indian classical music, made of characteristic notes, phrases and moods that guide improvisation.

tala

A repeating rhythmic cycle of counted beats that organises a composition.

tanpura

A long-necked drone lute that sounds the tonic and fifth continuously.

taraf (tarab)

Sympathetic strings running beneath the frets that vibrate in response to played notes.

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References

1. Grinnell College Libraries. sitar · Grinnell College Musical Instrument Collection. omeka-s.grinnell.edu/s/MusicalInstruments/item/631
2. Horniman Museum and Gardens. 321.321-6 Necked bowl lutes sounded by plectrum - Horniman Museum and Gardens. horniman.ac.uk/object/1970.427
3. Musical Instrument Museum (Phoenix). Sitar – Works – eMuseum. emuseum.nmmusd.org/objects/5827/sitar
4. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sitar, Indian, mid-19th century. metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/500759
5. Victoria and Albert Museum. Sitar | Unknown | V&A Explore The Collections. collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O86701

Sources were consulted for facts and context; the text is original. See Sources and Methodology.