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The sārangī is a bowed, short-necked string instrument played in traditional music from South Asia –
Punjabi folk music Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British ...
, Rajasthani folk music, and
Boro __NOTOC__ Boro may refer to: People * Boro people, indigenous peoples of Amazonas, Brazil * A variant spelling for the Bodo people of northeast India * Charan Boro, Indian politician * Isaac Adaka Boro, a celebrated Niger Delta nationalist and Nig ...
folk music (there known as the ''serja'') – in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. It is said to most resemble the sound of the human voice through its ability to imitate vocal ornaments such as ''
gamak Gamaka (also spelled gamakam) refer to ornamentation that is used in the performance of North and South Indian classical music. Gamaka can be understood as embellishment done on a note or between two notes. Present-day Carnatic music uses at le ...
s'' (shakes) and ''
meend In Hindustani music, meend (Hindi: मीण्ड, ur, ) refers to a glide from one note to another. It is an essential performance practice, and is used often in vocal and instrumental music. On the veena, sitar, sarangi and other plucked str ...
s'' (sliding movements). The
sarangi (Nepali) The Nepali Sarangi ( ne, नेपाली सारङ्गी) is a Nepali folk instrument. It is a chordophone played by bowing. Traditionally in Nepal, the Sarangi was only played by people of Gandarbha or Gaine caste (both contested and i ...
is a different instrument, traditional to Nepal.


History

Sarangi derives its name from the bow of Lord Vishnu and probably as it is played with a bow it is named sarangi. According to some musicians, the word ''sarangi'' is a combination of two words: ''seh'' ('three' in Persian) and ''rangi'' ('coloured' in Persian) or Persian ''sad-rangi'', ''sad'' for 'hundred' in Persian ('hundred coloured) corrupted as ''sarangi''. The term ''seh-rangi'' represents the three melody strings. However, the most common folk etymology is that ''sarangi'' is derived from ''sol rang'' ('a hundred colours') indicating its adaptability to many styles of vocal music, its flexible tunability, and its ability to produce a large palette of tonal colour and emotional nuance. The repertoire of ''sarangi'' players is traditionally very closely related to vocal music. Nevertheless, a concert with a solo ''sarangi'' as the main item will sometimes include a full-scale '' raag'' presentation with an extensive ''alap'' (the unmeasured improvisatory development of the raga) in increasing intensity (''alap'' to ''jor'' to ''jhala'') and several compositions in increasing tempo called ''bandish''. As such, it could be seen as being on a par with other instrumental styles such as
sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...
,
sarod The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet ...
, and bansuri. It is rare to find a ''sarangi'' player who does not know the words of many classical compositions. The words are usually mentally present during the performance, and a performance almost always adheres to the conventions of vocal performances including the organisational structure, the types of elaboration, the tempo, the relationship between sound and silence, and the presentation of ''
khyal Khyal or Khayal (ख़याल / خیال) is a major form of Hindustani classical music in the Indian subcontinent. Its name comes from a Persian/Arabic word meaning "imagination". Khyal is associated with romantic poetry, and allows the perfo ...
'' and ''
thumri Thumri () is a vocal genre or style of Indian music. The term "thumri" is derived from the Hindi verb ''thumuknaa'', which means "to walk with a dancing gait in such a way that the ankle-bells tinkle." The form is, thus, connected with dance, dr ...
'' compositions. The vocal quality of ''sarangi'' is in a separate category from, for instance, the so-called ''gayaki-ang'' of
sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...
which attempts to imitate the nuances of ''khyal'' while overall conforming to the structures and usually keeping to the ''gat'' compositions of instrumental music. (A ''gat'' is a composition set to a cyclic rhythm.) The Nepali Sarangi is also a traditional stringed musical instrument of
Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...
, commonly played by the Gaine or
Gandarbha The Gandarbha caste ( ne, गन्धर्व जाति) or Gaine ( ne, गाईने) are a Dalit community which belongs to the Indo-Aryan ethnic group from the central, hilly region of Nepal. They have also been called a "caste of pro ...
ethnic group but the form and repertoire of ''sarangi'' is more towards the folk music as compared to the heavy and classical form of the repertoire in
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. In Nepal, Sarangi is viewed as an iconic musical instrument to identify the Gandarbha people.


Structure

Carved from a single block of ''tun'' ( red cedar) wood, the ''sarangi'' has a box-like shape with three hollow chambers: ''pet'' ('stomach'), ''chaati'' ('chest') and ''magaj'' ('brain'). It is usually around long and around wide, though it can vary as there are smaller as well as larger variant ''sarangis'' as well. The lower resonance chamber or ''pet'' is covered with
parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins o ...
made out of goat skin on which a strip of thick leather is placed around the waist (and nailed on the back of the chamber) which supports the elephant-shaped bridge that is usually made of camel or buffalo bone. (Originally, it was made of ivory or
Barasingha The barasingha (''Rucervus duvaucelii''), also known as the swamp deer, is a deer species distributed in the Indian subcontinent. Populations in northern and central India are fragmented, and two isolated populations occur in southwestern Nepal. ...
bone but now that is rare due to the ban in India). The bridge in turn supports the huge pressure of approximately 35–37 sympathetic steel or brass strings and three main gut strings that pass through it. The three main playing strings – the comparatively thicker gut strings – are bowed with a heavy horsehair bow and stopped not with the fingertips but with the nails, cuticles, and surrounding flesh.
Talcum powder Talc, or talcum, is a clay mineral, composed of hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula Mg3Si4O10(OH)2. Talc in powdered form, often combined with corn starch, is used as baby powder. This mineral is used as a thickening agent ...
is applied to the fingers as a lubricant. The neck has ivory or bone platforms on which the fingers slide. The remaining strings are resonance strings or ''tarabs'', numbering up to around 35–37, divided into four choirs having two sets of pegs, one on the right and one on the top. On the inside is a chromatically tuned row of 15 ''tarabs'' and on the right a diatonic row of nine ''tarabs'' each encompassing a full octave, plus one to three extra surrounding notes above or below the octave. Both these sets of ''tarabs'' pass from the main bridge to the right side set of pegs through small holes in the ''chaati'' supported by hollow ivory/bone beads. Between these inner ''tarabs'' and on either side of the main playing strings lie two more sets of longer ''tarabs'', with five to six strings on the right set and six to seven strings on the left set. They pass from the main bridge over to two small, flat, wide, table-like bridges through the additional bridge towards the second peg set on top of the instrument. These are tuned to the important tones (''
swara Svara or swara (Devanagari: स्वर, generally pronounced as ''swar'') is a Sanskrit word that connotes simultaneously a breath, a vowel, the sound of a musical note corresponding to its name, and the successive steps of the octave or '' ...
s'') of the raga. A properly tuned ''sarangi'' will hum and cry and will sound like melodious meowing, with tones played on any of the main strings eliciting echo-like resonances. A few ''sarangis'' use strings manufactured from the intestines of goats.


Pakistan

Sarangi is a Mughal-era musical instrument. Sarangi decline in Pakistan began in the 1980s after the death of several master players. The instrument costs around
Rs. Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...
120,00/- (about $160).


Notable performers


Sarangi players in India

* Abdul Latif Khan (1934-2002) * Aruna Narayan (born 1959) * Ashique Ali Khan (1948-1999) * Bharat Bhushan Goswami (b. 1955) *
Bundu Khan Bundu Khan (1880 – 1955) was an Indian sarangi player. Early life and career Bundu Khan was born in Delhi in a family of musicians. He received his early training in sarangi from his father Ali Jan Khan starting at 8 years of age, and late ...
(1880-1955) *
Dhruba Ghosh Dhruba Ghosh (1957 - 2017) was an Indian classical musician and Sarangi player from Mumbai. Biography Dhruba Ghosh was born in 1957 in Mumbai. His father Padma Bhushan Pt Nikhil Ghosh was a famous musician, teacher and writer, known his profici ...
(1957-2017) * Ghulam Ali (Sarangi) (b. 1975) * Harsh Narayan (b. 1985) *
Manonmani ''Manonmani'' ( ta, மனோன்மணி) is a 1942 Indian Tamil-language film directed by T. R. Sundaram. It starred P. U. Chinnappa, T. R. Rajakumari, Serukalathur Sama, T. S. Balaiah, T. R. Mahalingam, K. K. Perumal, A. Sakunthala, N ...
(b. 2000) * Murad Ali Khan *
Ramesh Mishra Ramesh Mishra ( hi, रमेश मिश्रा, surname also spelled Misra) (Varanasi, India, 2 October 1948 - New York, U.S., 13 March 2017) was an Indian sarangi player. Mishra comes from a family of sarangi players and studied from an ...
(1948-2017) *
Ram Narayan Ram Narayan (; born 25 December 1927), often referred to with the title Pandit, is an Indian musician who popularised the bowed instrument ''sarangi'' as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music and became the first internationa ...
(b. 1927) * Sabir Khan (Sarangi) (b. 1978) *
Sabri Khan Ustad Sabri Khan (21 May 1927 – 1 December 2015) was an Indian sarangi player, who was descended on both sides of his family from a line of distinguished musicians. Early life Sabri Khan was born on 21 May 1927 in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, ...
(1927-2015) * Siddiqui Ahmed Khan (1914-) * Suhail Yusuf Khan (b. 1988) * Kamal Sabri * Dishad Khan * Sultan Khan (1940-2011) *
Ustad Faiyaz Khan Ustad Faiyaz Khan (8 February 1886 5 November 1950) was an Indian classical vocalist, an exponent of the Agra gharana of Hindustani classical music. According to SwarGanga Music Foundation website, "By the time he died at Baroda, he had earned ...
(born 1968) * Hanuman Prasad Mishra * Anant Kunte


Sarangi players in Pakistan

* Allah Rakha (1932-2000) *
Bundu Khan Bundu Khan (1880 – 1955) was an Indian sarangi player. Early life and career Bundu Khan was born in Delhi in a family of musicians. He received his early training in sarangi from his father Ali Jan Khan starting at 8 years of age, and late ...
(1880-1955) * Nathu Khan (1920-1971)


Other sarangi players

* Yuji Nakagawa, Sarangi – a Japanese citizen who learnt to play the instrument in India under the tutelage of Dhruba Ghosh


See also

*
Esraj The (from the pa, ਇਸਰਾਜ) is an Indian stringed instrument found in two forms throughout the Indian subcontinent. It is a relatively recent instrument, being only about 300 years old. It is found in North India, primarily Punjab, whe ...
* Sarinda *
Hindustani music Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, sita ...


References


Further reading

* Bor, Joep, 1987: "The Voice of the Sarangi", comprising ''National Centre for the Performing Arts Quarterly Journal'' 15 (3–4), December 1986 and March 1987 (special combined issue), Bombay: NCPA * Magriel, Nicolas, 1991 ''Sarangi Style in North Indian Music'' (published Ph.D. thesis), London: University of London, available on amazon.com * Qureshi, Regula Burckhardt, 1997: “The Indian Sarangi: Sound of Affect, Site of Contest”, Yearbook for Traditional Music, pp. 1–38 * Sorrell, Neil (with Ram Narayan), 1980: ''Indian Music in Performance'', Bolton: Manchester University Press


External links


Resham Firiri
A popular Nepali folk music with a Sarangi and ''
madal The madal ( ne, मादल) or maadal is a Nepalese folk musical instrument. The madal is used mainly for rhythm-keeping in Nepalese folk music. It is very popular and widely used as a hand drum in Nepal. The madal has a cylindrical body with a s ...
''.
sarangi.info
– downloadable sarangi and vocal music, including the integral of two important books, ''The Voice of the Sarangi'' by Joep Bor and ''Indian Music in Performance and Practice'' by Ram Narayan and Neil Sorrell.
Growing into Music
– includes several films by Nicolas Magriel on Indian musical enculturation including films about the sarangi players, Farooq Latif Khan (b. 1975), Sarwar Hussain Khan (b. 1981), Mohammed Ali Khan, Sarangi (d. 2002), Ghulam Sabir Qadri (1922-), Vidya Sahai Mishra (d. 2019), Siddiqui Ahmed Khan (1914-), Ghulam Sabir Khan (b. 1948), Murad Ali (b. 1977), Faiyaz Khan (Varanasi), Zakan Khan (Varanasi) and Kanhaiyalal Mishra (Varanasi).
Sarangi, Gujarat, 19th century
{{Authority control Bowed instruments Hindustani musical instruments Nepalese musical instruments String instruments with sympathetic strings Drumhead lutes * Chordophones