Sarod

The sarod is an Indian classical musical instrument similar to a lute.

Sonorous Instrument: Sarod

Origin

The sarod probably originates from the Senya rebab, an Indian instrument played till the 19th century. However, this is disputed by some sarod musicians, notably Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who are of the opinion that the instrument existed in ancient India. They refer to instruments which resemble the sarod found in carvings of the 1st century in the Champa temple and also in paintings in the Ajanta caves.

It is similar to the Rabab of Afghanistan and Kashmir. The instrument was modified by Amir Khusru in the 13th century. Ustad Allaudin Khan also changed the shape to improve the tonal quality. Dr. Lalmani Misra opines in his Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya that sarod is an amalgamation of ancient Chitra Veena, medieval Rabab and modern Sursingar.

Sarod Design

The design of the instrument varies with the school (gharana) of playing. There are two main types of the instrument, as detailed below.

One version (conventionally used by a majority of sarod players) is a 25-stringed lute-like instrument, whose body is hand carved from a single block of tun (Indian Mahogany) or teak wood, with a steel fretless fingerboard. The bridge rests on the belly of the instrument which is covered in goat skin. It is played with a plectrum or jaba made of coconut. Four of the strings are melody or playing strings, three are rhythm strings, and the rest are sympathetic and jawari strings, all made of metal.

The other version is that devised by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. In his version, the instrument is also made of teakwood but is shorter in length. It has fewer strings (total of nineteen) with four main strings, two jod strings (tuned to Sa), two chikari strings (tuned to Sa of the upper octave) and eleven tarab or sympathetic strings. The main strings are tuned to Ma, Sa, Lower Pa and Lower Sa, giving the instrument a range of three octaves. The gauge of these strings differs from other schools. The sarod gauges used by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan are 00 (double zero) for Ma, 1 for Sa, 3 for Pa and copper 28/29 for the lower Sa. Jod Strings are of 0 gauge and chikari are 00 or 000. Tarab stings use 0 or 00 or 000 for the higher notes.

Hemen Sen of Calcutta is regarded as currently making the finest sarods.

Play

The lack of frets and the tension of the strings makes it very technically demanding to play, as the strings must be pressed hard against the fingerboard.

There are two schools of sarod playing, one where the tip of the fingernails are used to stop the strings, thus certain strength and stiffness of the fingernails is a prerequisite for accuracy of pitch, and the other using the fingers to stop the strings against the fingerboard. The technique which uses the fingernails produces a ringing tone to the sarod as against the flatter tone produced by the finger technique.

Senior/late players

* Aashish Khan
* Ali Akbar Khan
* Allauddin Khan
* Amjad Ali Khan
* Ashok Ray
* Bahadur Khan
* Brij Narayan
* Buddhadev Das Gupta
* Damodar Lal Kabra
* Dhyanesh Khan
* Hafiz Ali Khan
* Jotin Bhattacharya
* Kaukubh Khan
* Mohammed Amir Khan
* Radhika Mohan Moitra
* Rajeev Taranath
* Sharan Rani
* Timir Baran (Bhattacharya)
* Vasant Rai

Contemporary performers

* Abhik Kumar Sarkar
* Aditya Verma
* Anirban Das Gupta
* Apratim Majumdar
* Basant Kabra
* Biswajit Roy Chowdhury
* Joydeep Ghosh
* Kalyan Mukherjee
* Mukesh Sharma
* Narendranath Dhar
* Partho Sarathy
* Pradeep Barot
* Prattyush Banerjee
* Satyam Vasant Rai
* Suraranjan
* Tejendra Narayan Majumdar

External links

* Ali Akbar College of Music
* Amjad Ali Khan's homepage
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