| SITAR INFORMATION PAGE | ||||||||||||||||||||
| HISTORY |
Shortly after the time of Sharangadeva, there lived an extraodinary inovator and genius, Amir Khusro, who was not only and unrivaled scholar and lover of music and skilled musician, but also a poet and statesman. He was of Persian lineage, but also was born and brought up in India. He aquired his musical fame at the court of Sultan Allauddin Khilji, a Pathan ruler of Dehli, where he was a celebrated singer. Because of his musical talents and immense imitative powers, he was called Shrutidar, a name given to one who can reproduce any sound--musical or not--even if he has heard it only once. It is not unnatural that since he held such prominent position, the historians of his time glorified him and gave him credit for many things that he really did not bring about. He is nonetheless responsible for a number of modifications of musical instruments, and in particular the sitar, for creating some ragas that are heard today, and for developing and popularizing some well-known styles of singing. Many scholors believe that the sitar was in existence long before Amir Khusro's time, in diverse shapes in different regions of India. It was variously called tritantri veena (sanskrit meaning "three stringed") chitra vena ("seven stringed"), or parivadni. But it is and undeniable fact that Amir Khusro did make certain alterations and give the instrument a new name, "sehtar" (Persian for three stringed). One of the innovations that he brought to the sehtar was to reverse the order of the strings, giving the instrument the present-day universal arrangement of the strings. Another ancient stringed instrument, the been or veena, still has its strings in the old inside out order, that is, the main playing string is on the side, and the bass strings are on the part of the instrument that face toward the hand and the wrist of the musician as he holds the instrument. Another improvement that Amir Khusro brought to the sitar was to make the frets movable. (Frets are the metal strips or bars that go across the fingerboard of the instrument.) On the older instruments, such as the veena, the frets were fixed with was and could not be moved; but Amir Khusro attached silken string or thin gut to the frets and tied them back at the back of the neck, so that the player could slide them up or down. According to this method, the fingerboard was divided into the seven-note octave after eliminating some frets, and the frets could be moved ou or down fot the use of half or whole notes. The surbahar, a bass version of the sitar was created by Ustad Sahabdad Khan. This huge instrument is, technically, one of the most advanced and difficult string instruments in the world requiring great technical skill and physical strength to master. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Sitars are generally fashioned from teak wood. They have six or seven main strings, and anywhere form nine to thirteen sympathetic strings, with the exception of student sitars, which have no sympathetic strings. Many sitars have an extra resonating gourd, The have anywhere from nineteen to twentythree frets; but nineteen is the standard number. | ABOUT THE INSTRUMENT | |||||||||||||||||||
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| WHERE AND HOW TO BUY SITARS |
Sitars are fragile instruments and are hard to find. I know of only a few places that offer good instruments for reasonable prices. If you are to get a sitar it should be free of cracks, chips in varnish, broken strings, and also should be tuned (this way you know the pegs don't stick). Another good thing to look for is fat frets. Below is a list of links to where you may purchase them. ****************SITAR CLASSIFIED ADS************ To add your ad to this page for free, email your name, address, and article and info on your sitar or Indian musical instrument/s to: [email protected] | |||||||||||||||||||
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