English: “Musical Wonders of Sarangi”

Hindustani (North Indian) Instrument. This is the performance tradition usually associated with Indian

One of the most popular and oldest bowed instruments in India is Sarangi. Sarangi has a hollow body and made of teak wood adorned with ivory inlays. It consists of forty strings of which thirty seven are sympathetic. The instrument Sarangi is held in a vertical position and played with a bow. To play the Sarangi one has to press the fingernails of the left hand against the strings. The name Sau Rangi derives the meaning 100 colours which is played with a bow and has four main strings and as many as forty resonant strings.

Sarangi is generally used to accompany singers but can also be a solo instrument. Sarangi always forms an important string instrument in Hindustani school of classical music tradition. It has been said that of all Indian instruments, Sarangi resembles most to the sound of the human voice. The origin of the name Sarangi is very interesting as the word Sarangi has been derived from two Hindi words- sau (which means 100) and rang (color).

Definition

The origin of the term "sarangi" is not exactly clear. The most quoted etymology of the word says that means "a hundred (sau) colours (rang)". The reference to the multiplicity of colours is often said to refer to the richness of the sound of the instrument. However it should be mentioned that this etymology is not universally accepted. Some suggest that it is derived from the Sanskrit word "Sarang" which is a spotted deer; this last etymology seems somewhat doubtful. All of this may be interesting, but what about the instrument itself?

The exact definition of the term "Sarangi", is somewhat flexible. In its most general form, it refers to any unfretted, bowed Indian instrument, which has a bridge resting on skin or some other membrane. This term may be acceptable to the lay public, but for practising musicians as well as scholars, this term is unacceptably broad. The general use of the term encompasses instruments such as the saringda, chikara, and the kamancha. For these web pages, we will use a more restrictive definition of the term. Therefore in these pages, we will be referring to the more boxlike members of this class, while the other members will be discussed in their respective pages.

Bowing instruments have a very rich and old tradition in India. In folk and tribal music, various types of bowed instruments are found in different regions. Some of them come close to the classical sarangi as far as shape, making and playing techniques are concerned, thus giving clear-cut evidence that the classical sarangi has been developed from these folk instruments.

The sarangi is the only instrument which can produce almost all the nuances of vocal music of any style, be it dhrupad, khayal, thumri, tappa or bhajan or even ghazal, with exact embellishments and intonations. That is why this Instrument has always remained in close association with vocal music, and has always been preferred by vocalists as an able accompaniment. Sarangi players have always been trained in classical music to the extent that some of them have been the ustads of famous vocalists.

Though the sarangi has all the characters of a good instrument, and is very rich in its tonal texture and techniques, it could not attain its due place in classical music. One of the reasons why it could not acquire a respectable place among other classical instruments was because of its association with dancing and singing girls of the lower castes. Here the main attraction of the performance used to be the dancer or the singer, and the sarangi player, no matter how accomplished a musician he was, always remained in the background. Later, when it (sarangi) entered the classical music and started accompanying khayal style of singing, the situation still remained the same. Although the expectations from a sarangi player were very high, his remuneration and social status always remained low.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, harmonium (a keyboard instrument) and violin emerged as alternatives to sarangi. These instruments were easier to handle. The sarangi and the sarangi players slowly became an endangered species. From the beginning of the twentieth century, efforts have been made by many sarangi stalwarts to perform solo on this instrument.

The shape of the body of the sarangi is irregular, with the waist deeper on the left side than on the right. The sound box or the pet is covered with young goat skin, tightly glued along the rim. The main ghurach or the bridge is placed in the middle of the parchment, and is supported by a leather belt (tasma), nailed to the sides of the belly. Inserted in the chhati on the right side are three rows of small pegs (khunti) made of shisham wood for sympathetic strings. The two back rows of fifteen pegs for tuning the main set of sympathetic strings are tied diagonally on the neck under the three main strings. The front row of nine pegs turies the right hand set of sympathetic strings, which run almost vertically down the right side of the neck. The resonance strings attached to the eleven front row pegs mounted on the upper peg box pass through holes in the targahan (upper nut), and are stretched over two small ghurach (bridges) called aankh or tabij. Mostly tarab strings are made of steel, but for lower pitched strings copper wire is preferred.

While playing, the artist sits cross-legged on the floor and keeps the Instrument in front of the chest. Bowing is very important and Synchronization of bowing with left-hand technique is a most difficult art. Mostly three fingers of the left hand are used in a unique way, and unlike other bowed Instruments, the sound is produced by the contact of string and the root of left hand finger nails, instead of the finger tips, which is a usual practice with most other bowed Instruments.