सितार
The sitar is the most celebrated instrument in the Hindustani classical tradition and the one most immediately associated with Indian classical music by listeners worldwide. Its distinctive sound — a complex, shimmering tone produced by the vibration of both playing strings and resonating sympathetic strings — is immediately recognisable and unlike any other instrument in the world.
The sitar has a long fretted neck (dand) of teak or tun wood, with a hollow body (tumba) made from a dried pumpkin gourd. Most sitars have a second, smaller gourd attached at the top of the neck for additional resonance. The instrument typically has seven main playing strings — four melody strings (used for playing) and three chikari strings (drones that provide rhythmic punctuation) — plus thirteen or more sympathetic strings (tarab) that run beneath the frets and resonate in response to the played notes, creating the characteristic shimmer.
The sitar is played with a wire plectrum (mizrab) worn on the index finger of the right hand. The left hand stops the strings against the curved frets, which are tied to the neck and adjustable. The high curvature of the frets allows the player to pull the string sideways to raise the pitch — the defining technique of meend (glide), which is central to sitar playing. A complete performance on sitar covers the full classical structure: alaap, jod, jhala, and gat.
The sitar's development began during the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, when the Arab rabab and the Persian setar influenced the indigenous Indian veena tradition. The name "sitar" itself comes from the Persian "seh tar" (three strings), though the modern instrument has far more. The eighteenth century musician Masit Khan is often credited with establishing the modern sitar's gayaki ang (vocal style) approach, and the Imdadkhani gharana developed the most influential modern sitar tradition. In the twentieth century, Ustad Vilayat Khan's introduction of the gayaki ang and Pandit Ravi Shankar's global ambassadorship transformed both the instrument and the world's perception of Indian classical music.
The sitar's ability to produce the subtle ornaments of Indian classical music — the meend (glide), the gamaka (oscillation), the murki (rapid grace-note cluster) — combined with its wide dynamic range and its beautiful, complex tone, make it uniquely suited to the full classical tradition. No other instrument so completely embodies the aesthetic ideals of Hindustani music.