Excerpts from

Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya - Sitar

By Dr. Lalmani Misra

 

 

 

The best book on sitar written after this was Sir Sourendra Mohan Tagore's Yantrakshetra-Deepika, first published around 1882. The edition I could obtain was the third edition published in 1890. The author has accepted the growth of sitar from Tritantri veena and conjectures that this tritantri veena was given the name of seh-tar by Khusro. He further writes that in sitar there are five strings, three of brass and two of toughened iron. Some times three or four secondary strings are also tied, which are called chikari or parshwa-tantri (back-strings). He advocates the following system for tuning the strings.

1. Baj string (Main string) -- in mandra Madhyam (Fourth natural note of lower octave)

2. Two string of Jodi (Second and third string) -- in mandra Shadaj (Tonic of lower octave)

3. Two strings of Pancham -- in Madhyam (Fourth) or Gandhar (Third) depending on the Raga selected.

4. Kshudra String (chikari or parshwa-tantri) -- As per discretion of player

In the sitar described by him there are seventeen frets instead of traditional sixteen, the seventeenth being placed at madhyam (Fourth) of upper octave. The one salient addition to existing knowledge about sitar in Sourendra Mohan Tagore's book is mention of the rear, secondary strings. Hussein in Qanoon-i-Sitar had mentioned just one secondary string, papiha along with five main strings; Tagore speaks of five main strings and occasional three or four secondary strings. So it can safely be concluded that by the beginning of 1900, sitar usually carried five main strings and two secondary strings.

During the past years of twentieth century 8 the sitar has developed fully. In the early years of this century experimentation with the shape of gourd also led to two kinds of sitar -- one with a round gourd and the other with a flat one. The flattened gourd seemed like the back of a turtle (Kachchap), hence it earned a new name -- Kachchapi veena. The shape of Kachchapi veena persisted till 1950 but after that sitar-s were made with round gourds only. During this period sitar-s with eight strings were also made that carried three secondary strings. Around 1940-45 the Alap (Slow elaboration) of surbahar being practised on sitar, the bigger instrument became redundant. It is rarely used now-a-days. One of the reasons was the increase in the size of sitar which enhanced its resonance, intensity and tonal quality. Second was the change in the facility of tuning the strings of sitar. Artistes earlier tended to use Surbahar for Alap, Jod (Rhythmic patterns) and sitar for Gat (Composition). But the two changes compounded to make sitar a better choice. This gradually diminished the use of surbahar.

In the present times sitar is favoured instrument of musicians. There is large number of competent sitar artiste in the country. A popular appeal calls for changes and therefore some structural changes done in sitar were discussed above. We shall now deliberate the changes in musical content for sitar. Till 1945-50 the two established genres of sitar-playing, Maseetkhani and Razakhani were pretty well established. Both were complete, equally appealing and represented their schools distinctly. The first was called western baj, the latter the eastern baj. The artiste of one school would never play material of the other baj. But 1945 onwards, sitar artistes rather than stay with one school, began playing both the styles. The influence of Khayal singing, where after a Vilambit or slow composition a fast-paced Drut Khayal was featured, can be observed to work on instrumental presentation. Maseetkhani was picked to mime vilambit (slow) and razakhani served for drut (Fast) compositions. The students of music can distinguish little between the two baj-s, apart from one being slow and the other fast.

The compositions used in Sitar were invariably 16 beats, fast or slow. Hence a few notable artistes began using other metres like Roopak, Jhaptal in their compositions. But unlike maseetkhani the phrases used were straight and lacklustre. To play compositions in these tal-s, straight bol-s of plectrum were used. For example, "DaRa DaRa DaDaRa" in Roopak and "DaRa DaDaRa DaRa DaDaRa" in Jhap-tal.

Prior to present progress, performers of eastern baj in a show of their aesthetic inclination, would also play sitarkhani gat-s in Raga Pilu, Kafi, Bhairavi, Tilak, Kamod. All these raga-s are alluring and enthral the audience. As in maseetkhani, the bol-s in these compositions also were certain.

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These bol-s start from seventh beat. Because of a meandering pace the following Theka of Addha Trital is played with this:

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This gat is expanded with rhythmical gusts befitting Thumri with bol-banav along with short phrased Tan-s. Ever since this practice of playing dhun-s (short vivacious compositions) and thumri started the gat-s of sitarkhani have fallen into oblivion. The present progress has been the replacement of vilambit with maseetkhani, madhya and drut with razkhani and serving the need for light music with dhun-s and folk-tunes. For some years, attempts to create some new gat-s for sitar have also been made. Famous sitar maestro Vilayat Khan has created some gat-s that while marinating maseetkhani mizrab, start from the fourteenth instead of twelfth beat.

Raga Sindura -- Tal Trital (Vilambit)

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In addition, the innovations to use some other Tal-s in compositions are quite significant. These new innovations have been fully tested and practiced in actual performances. In these experimentations using Jhumra and Jhaptal for vilambit, and Ektal and Ada Choutal for drut compositions sound fascinating. The mizrab bol-s for these are:

Jhoomra - Vilambit

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Jhaptal -Vilambit

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In the above mizrab, compositions of less than two cycles should not be played.

Ada Choutal - Drut Gat

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Ektal - Drut Laya

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or

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In the second type of Ektal mizrab, gat shorter than two cycles is not possible. Practicing with the above mizrab bol-s, these tal-s can be as easily brought into use as trital. Because of their innate complexity these Misrakhani 9 compositions are also known as Baj of Koot (intricate, enigmatic, veiled). Like maseetkhani and razakhani, it is gradually burgeoning as a complete baj in its own right.

Concluded.

The above excerpt was drawn from the third chapter of the book entitled Tat Vadya that carries detailed description of forty-one types of string instruments of which sitar is one.

8 This statement indicates years up to 1970s as Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya was first published in 1973.

9 Over the years, to the Baj of Koot, called Misrakhani here, Dr. Lalmani Misra added several compositions, writing, demonstrating, and recording them till his demise in 1979. A number of such compositions -- written or recorded -- were continuously brought to light by disciples, associates and scholars in eighties and nineties. This body of work today is known as Misrabani. Misrabani has been created for all string instruments and can be played on all – from Vichitra Veena, Sitar, Sarod to Guitar, Violin, Santoor etc.

References :

Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya published by

Bharatiya Jnanpith

18, Institutional Area, Lodhi Rd

New Delhi - 110003

Links

Dr. Lalmani Misra on Wikipedia

Excerpts: Surmandal

Excerpts: Anceint Veena-s

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