The tuning of the strings in the ordinary sitar is usually as follows, beginning from the shortest string attached to the side peg : —
Sa Sa Pa Pa Sa Sa Ma (c c Gi, g c c f)
The last string is the one usually played on, though expert players will use the last three. This string passes through a small bead at its attachment to the belly, so as to aid in tuning to the exact pitch required.
The Carnatic sitar runs thus :
Sa Pa Sa Pa Sa Sa Sa (c g c g c c c)
The instrument is played by means of a wire plectrum placed upon the forefinger of the right hand, and the strings are struck near the belly. They are stopped by pressing down the fingers of the left hand upon them right above the frets, and not just before the frets as is done on the Vina. As a rule, only one string is stopped, the others being used as open strings for the accompanying drone sound.
There is a beautiful sitar in the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in Bombay, which has an ostrich egg for the bowl, beautifully mounted on gold. Some sitars have peacock-shaped heads and are called Peacock sitars. The Tarfa sitar has an extra string for the ^ruti or tonic. The sitar is also called sundari — the beautiful.
The sitar lends itself well to the performance of Indian music, and is becoming more popular among the people generally.
The invention of the sitar is commonly credited to the famous singer Amir Khusru of the court of Sultan Ala-u-din in the fourteenth century. It is probably of Persian origin.
The Dilruba is very much like a sitar, but smaller; and instead of a bowl, it has a belly, covered with sheep-parchment. In shape it is something like the sarangi, and like that instrument it is played with a bow made of horse-hair. It has frets similar to the sitar, nineteen in number, which are movable. It has only the four main strings and not the extra three. The dilruba is made, as a rule, with twenty-two sympathetic strings under the main strings.
