Sarangi

In January, I attended the Nisagandhi festival here in Trivandrum, a 7 day music and dance festival including various forms of dance like Mohiniyattom, Kuchippudi, Odisi, Sufiyani Kathak, Bharathanadyam and the concerts of Yesudas, Sarangi + Gazal, Khawali by Hussain group, Hindustani/Carnatic Jugalbandhi by Sriram & Anuradha Sriram, Double violin.

I'm now tuning Sarangi before you!!

This Sarangi is a fantastic instrument with some 40-50 strings, fretless indeed.

It is very rare to find out a recently manufactured sarangi. Actually a typical sarangi is morethan 100 years old and has been passed from generations.

According to the famous sarangi maestro Farooque Lateef Khan,

sarangi banana muskhil, milna muskhil, aur bajana mushkil hai (A sarangi is hard to manufacture, difficult to source, and tough to play).

As for the “tough to play” part, we agree as the sarangi is notoriously difficult to tune and play – the use of the fingernail/cuticle makes the physical effort very painful.

We know the sarangi as a beautifully expressive and evocative instrument. Both the chitraveena in Carnatic music and the sarangi in Huindustania are perhaps the closest to the human voice. Chitraveena by Ravikiran is a must watch concert.