The word sitar is derived from the Persian word setar, meaning three strings, yet the instrument that emerged from the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century bears little resemblance to its ancestor. Modern scholarship identifies Khusrau Khan, an 18th-century figure of the Mughal Empire, as the true inventor who transformed the small Persian three-stringed setar into the complex instrument known today. While popular tradition once credited the 13th-century Sufi poet Amir Khusrow with its invention, historians now dismiss this claim as a confusion between Khusrow and Khusrau Khan, noting that no records from the 13th century mention the name sitar. The earliest written reference to the instrument appears in the 1739 work Muraqqa-i-Dehli, written by Dargah Quli Khan during the reign of Muhammad Shah Rangila. The evolution of the sitar involved significant structural changes, including a wider neck, a resonating bowl made of gourd instead of glued wood lathes, and the addition of metal frets and a bone nut. Masid Khan later added two more strings, and the modern seven-string version was finalized by Allauddin Khan, while sympathetic strings were first introduced by Imdad Khan. The instrument's history is a testament to cross-cultural exchange, blending Persian nomenclature with Indian musical innovation to create a unique sonic identity.
Anatomy of a Resonating Gourd
A sitar can possess 18, 19, 20, or 21 strings, creating a complex web of sound that distinguishes it from any other plucked instrument. Six or seven of these strings run over curved, raised frets and are played directly, while the remainder are sympathetic strings known as tarafdaar, which run underneath the frets and resonate in sympathy with the played strings. The instrument features two bridges: the large badaa goraa for the playing and drone strings, and the small chota goraa for the sympathetic strings. The distinctive timbre results from the way the strings interact with the wide, rounded bridge, where the vibration changes the string's length slightly as one edge moves along the curve, promoting the creation of overtones. This specific tone is maintained by a technique called jawari, which requires precise shaping of the bridge and is often adjusted by skilled instrument makers. Materials used in construction include teak wood or tun wood for the neck and faceplate, and calabash gourds for the resonating chambers. The bridges themselves are crafted from deer horn, ebony, or occasionally camel bone, with synthetic materials becoming common in modern times. The frets, known as thaat, are movable, allowing for fine tuning that adapts to the specific raga being played.
The Two Paths of Style
There are two popular modern styles of sitar that define the instrument's visual and sonic character in the 20th century. The fully decorated instrumental style, often called the Ravi Shankar style, is typically made of seasoned toon wood and fitted with a second resonator called a tumba on the neck. This style is often adorned with floral or grape carvings and celluloid inlays featuring colored patterns, and it typically has 13 sympathetic strings. The other style, known as the gayaki or Vilayat Khan style, prioritizes vocal imitation over visual ornamentation. Prices for these instruments are often determined by the manufacturer's name rather than looks alone, with older models by Rikhi Ram of Delhi and Hiren Roy of Kolkata fetching very high collectible prices. Some sitars feature specialized modifications, such as the small extra bridge fixed at the top of the fingerboard by Nikhil Banerjee to enhance sustain. The positioning of sympathetic string pegs varies among sub-styles, and the market includes student models, semi-pro styles, and master models. The best teak sitars are made from wood that has been seasoned for generations, with sources of such old wood guarded as trade secrets, leading builders to seek old teak from colonial-style villas used as whole trunk columns.
Tuning of the sitar depends on the sitarist's school or style, tradition, and each artist's personal preference, with no default setting existing for the instrument. The main playing string is almost invariably tuned a perfect fourth above the tonic, while the second string is tuned to the tonic, which is referred to as sa in the Indian solfège system. The perfect fifth to which one or more of the drone strings are tuned is called pañcam, not samvād. Players must re-tune for each raga, adjusting the strings by tuning pegs and fine-tuning the main playing strings by sliding a bead threaded on each string just below the bridge. In the Kharaj Pancham tuning used by Ravi Shankar, the playable strings are strung with chikari strings tuned to Sa and Pa, kharaj bass strings tuned to low Sa and Pa, and jod and baaj strings tuned to Sa and Ma. There is significant stylistic variance within these tunings, and like most Indian stringed instruments, the tuning varies by schools of teaching known as gharana and the piece that is meant to be played. The player balances the instrument between the left foot and right knee, allowing the hands to move freely without carrying the weight of the instrument.
The Voice of the Strings
The player plucks the string using a metallic pick or plectrum called a mizraab, with the thumb anchored on the top of the fretboard just above the main gourd. Generally, only the index and middle fingers are used for fingering, although a few players occasionally use the third. A specialized technique called meend involves pulling the main melody string down over the bottom portion of the sitar's curved frets, allowing the sitarist to achieve a seven-semitone range of notes. This technique was developed by Vilayat Khan into a method that imitates the melisma of the vocal style, known as gayaki ang. Sometimes, a sitar could be played with a bow, producing a sound similar to the sarangi but raspier. Adept players bring in charisma through the use of special techniques like Kan, Krintan, Murki, and Zamzama, and they also use special Mizrab Bol-s, as in Misrabani. The instrument's sound is shaped by the interaction of the strings with the bridge, creating a rich tapestry of overtones that defines the sitar's unique voice in Hindustani classical music.
The Beatles and the Sitar Explosion
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Ravi Shankar, along with his tabla player Alla Rakha, began a further introduction of Indian classical music to Western culture. The sitar saw use in Western music when, guided by David Crosby's championing of Shankar, George Harrison played it on the Beatles' songs Norwegian Wood, Love You To, and Within You Without You, recorded between 1965 and 1967. The Beatles' association with the instrument helped popularize Indian classical music among Western youth, particularly once Harrison began receiving tutelage from Shankar and the latter's protégé Shambhu Das in 1966. That same year, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones used a sitar on Paint It Black, while another English guitarist, Dave Mason, played it on Traffic's 1967 hits Paper Sun and Hole in My Shoe. These and other examples marked a trend of featuring the instrument in pop songs, which Shankar later described as the great sitar explosion. Speaking to KRLA Beat in July 1967, he said: Many people, especially young people, have started listening to sitar since George Harrison, one of the Beatles, became my disciple. It is now the in thing.
Electric Sitar and Global Echoes
Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page talked about his love of Indian music, saying: I went to India after I came back from a tour with the Yardbirds in the late sixties just so I could hear the music firsthand. Let's put it this way: I had a sitar before George Harrison got his. I wouldn't say I played it as well as he did, though. Robbie Krieger's guitar part on the Doors' 1967 track The End was heavily influenced by Indian ragas and features melodic and rhythmic qualities that suggest a sitar or veena. Many pop performances actually involve the electric sitar, which is a solid-body, guitar-like instrument and quite different from the traditional acoustic Indian instrument. The Kinks' 1965 single See My Friends featured a low-tuned drone guitar that was widely mistaken to be a sitar. Crosby's band, the Byrds, had similarly incorporated elements of Indian music, using only Western instrumentation, on their songs Eight Miles High and Why in 1966. Psychedelic music bands often used new recording techniques and effects and drew on non-Western sources such as the ragas and drones of Indian music. The Electric Prunes appeared in early ads for the Vox Wah wah pedal, which touted the effect's ability to make an electric guitar sound like a sitar. Donovan's personnel on his 1966 album Sunshine Superman included Shawn Phillips on sitar, and Phillips also played sitar on one song on Donovan's next album Mellow Yellow, produced in 1967.
Gharanas and the Living Tradition
A gharana is a system of social organization in the Indian subcontinent, linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship. Notable gharanas include the Imdadkhani gharana, the Maihar gharana, and the Bishnupur gharana, each representing a distinct lineage of teaching and performance. The Imdadkhani gharana, founded by Imdad Khan, is credited with adding sympathetic strings to the sitar and developing the gayaki ang style. The Maihar gharana, led by Allauddin Khan, was responsible for creating the modern seven-string sitar and producing legendary students like Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan. The Bishnupur gharana represents another significant lineage, contributing to the diversity of sitar playing styles. Starting in the late 1970s, Pakistan International Airlines in-flight music featured the sitar to evoke feelings of nostalgia for the homeland among the Pakistani diaspora. Steve Howe of the British progressive rock band Yes played a Danelectro sitar guitar on their album Close to the Edge as well as the song To Be Over from their 1974 album Relayer. Deepak Khazanchi played sitar and tanpura on the song It Can Happen, from Yes' 1983 album 90125. Paul Young's 1985 cover of Hall & Oates's song Everytime You Go Away included an electric sitar played by John Turnbull. The gharana system ensures the preservation of these traditions while allowing for individual innovation and adaptation to new contexts.