Continuing our journey to explore traditional Indian Musical Instruments, we take a look at some more of these master pieces.

BANSURI

There are two varieties of bansuri: the transverse, and the fipple. The fipple variety is usually played in folk music and is held away from the lips like a whistle. Because of the flexibility and control it offers, the transverse variety is preferred in classical music.

The Bansuri

Pandit Pannalal Ghosh (1911–1960) elevated the Bansuri from a folk instrument into serious classical music. He improvised with the length and number of holes and eventually came up with longer bansuris with larger bores and a seventh hole placed 90 degrees around from the line of the other six holes. Longer bansuris provided better coverage in the lower octaves.

Playing style

Bansuris vary in length. They range from about 12 inches up to about 40 inches. 20-inch bansuris are common. Another common and similar Indian flute played in South India is the venu. The index, middle, and fourth fingers of both hands are usually used to play the six hole bansuri. For the seven hole bansuri, the fifth finger of the right hand is usually used.

The sound from a bansuri comes from resonance in the air column inside it. The length of this column can be varied by closing or opening the holes. At the same time, keeping a hole half-open helps in getting a flat note. The Sa (on the Indian sargam scale, or equivalent “do” on the octave) note is obtained by covering the top three holes from the mouth-hole. The higher and lower octaves are played by changing one’s embouchure. The flat portion of the fingers, and not the tips, are used to cover the holes as this gives better control and ease while playing the half-holes. While playing, the sitting posture is also important and care must be taken so that the back is not strained for long hours. Bansuris of different sizes are used to play different octaves. The longer bansuris with larger bore are usually for lower octaves and the slimmer ones for higher octaves.

Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia

In order to play diatonic scale on a bansuri, it is important to find where the notes lie. E.g. in a bansuri where Sa or the tonic, played always by closing the first three holes, is equivalent to D, one can play sheet music by creating a finger notation that corresponds to different notes. A bansuri player is able to achieve the complexities of Raga music such as microtonal inflections, ornamentation, and glissando by varying breath, fast movement while playing both half and full holes, and covering the holes gradually.

Maestros

• Hariprasad Chaurasia
• Rajendra Prasanna
• Devendra Murdeshwar

Fun fact

• In traditional Indian metaphysics, it is noted how remarkable it is the way the life force (pran, or literally ‘breath’) is converted into a musical resonance (sur).
• In Indian mythology the bansuri has a special significance as it is the chosen instrument of the Hindu god Krishna, who is often depicted playing it.
• Hariprasad Chaurasia was a trained wrestler before he moved on to play the flute, (His students dare not play a wrong note!)

The sarod is believed by some to have descended from the Afghan rubab, a similar instrument originating in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The name Sarod roughly translates to “beautiful sound” or “melody” in Persian (which is one of the many languages spoken in Afghanistan). Although the sarod has been referred to as a ‘bass rubab’ its pitch range is only slightly lower than that of the rubab. Lalmani Misra opines in his Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya that the sarod is an amalgamation of the ancient chitra veena, the medieval rubab and modern sursingar. There is also a speculation that the oud (a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in Middle Eastern music) may be the origin of the sarod. Among the many conflicting and contested histories of the sarod, there is one that attributes its invention to the ancestors of the present-day sarod maestro, Amjad Ali Khan. Amjad Ali Khan’s ancestor Mohammad Hashmi Khan Bangash, a musician and horse trader, came to India with the Afghan rubab in the mid-1700s and became a court musician to the Maharajah of Rewa (now in Madhya Pradesh). It was his descendants – notably his grandson Ghulam Ali Khan Bangash who became a court musician in Gwalior – who gradually transformed the rubab into the sarod we know today. A parallel theory credits descendants of Madar Khan (1701–1748) – Niyamatullah Khan in particular – with the same innovation in 1820. It is possible that Ghulam Ali Khan and Niyamatullah Khan came to the similar design propositions either independently or in unacknowledged collaboration. The sarod in its present recognizable form dates back to 1820, when it started gaining recognition as a serious instrument in Rewa, Shahjahanpur, Gwalior and Lucknow. In the twentieth century, the sarod received some finishing touches from Allauddin Khan, the performer-pedagogue from Maihar, best known as Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan’s guru.

Construction

The Sarod

The conventional sarod is a 17 to 19 – stringed lute-like instrument – four to five main strings used for playing the melody, one or two drone strings, two chikari strings and nine to eleven sympathetic strings. The design of this early model is generally credited to Niyamatullah Khan of the Lucknow Gharana as well as Ghulam Ali Khan of the Gwalior-Bangash Gharana. Among the contemporary sarod players, this basic design is kept intact by two streams of sarod playing. Amjad Ali Khan and his disciples play this model, as do the followers of Radhika Mohan Maitra. Both Amjad Ali Khan and Buddhadev Dasgupta have introduced minor changes to their respective instruments which have become the design templates for their followers. Both musicians use sarods made of teak wood, with the playing face covered with goat skin. Buddhadev Dasgupta prefers a polished stainless steel fingerboard for the ease of maintenance while Amjad Ali Khan uses the conventional chrome or nickel-plated cast steel fingerboard. Visually, the two variants are similar, with six pegs in the main pegbox, two rounded chikari pegs and 11 (Amjad) to 15 (Buddhadev) sympathetic strings. The descendants of Niyamatullah Khan (namely Irfan Khan and Ghulfam Khan) also play similar instruments. The followers of Radhika Mohan Maitra still carry the second resonator on their sarods. Amjad Ali khan and his followers have rejected the resonator altogether.

Another type is the one designed by Allauddin Khan and his brother Ayet Ali Khan. This instrument, referred by David Trasoff as the 1934 Maihar Prototype, is larger and longer than the conventional instrument, though the fingerboard is identical to the traditional sarod described above. This instrument has 25 strings in all. These include four main strings, four jod strings (tuned to Ni or Dha, R/r, G/g and Sa respectively), two chikari strings (tuned to Sa of the upper octave) and fifteen tarab strings. The main strings are tuned to Ma (“fa”), Sa (“do”), lower Pa (“so”) and lower Sa, giving the instrument a range of three octaves. The Maihar sarod lends itself extremely well to the presentation of alap with the four jod strings providing a backdrop that helps usher in the ambience of the raga. This variant is, however, not conducive to the performance of clean right-hand picking on individual strings. They tune to C.

Playing Style

The lack of frets and the tension of the strings make the sarod a very demanding instrument to play, as the strings must be pressed hard against the fingerboard.

There are two approaches to stopping the strings of the sarod. One involves using the tip of one’s fingernails to stop the strings; certain strength and stiffness of the fingernails is a prerequisite for accuracy of pitch. The other uses a combination of the nail and the fingertip to stop the strings against the fingerboard. The technique which uses the fingernails produces a ringing tone, while the fingertip technique produces a flatter tone.

Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan with sons Amaan and Ayaan

Left hand fingering technique of the sarod is not as well-defined as it should have been in order for sarod players across the board to understand each other. Fingering techniques and how they are taught depend largely on the personal preferences of musicians and are not even distinguishable on the basis of school affiliation. Radhika Mohan Maitra, for example, used the index, middle and ring finger of his left hand to stop the string, just like followers of Allauddin Kha. Maitra, however, made much more extensive use of the third fingernail for slides and hammers. Amjad Ali Khan, while a member of approximately the same stylistic school as Radhika Mohan, prefers to use just the index and middle fingers of his left hand. Amjad Ali is, however, pictured in 1960 playing with all three fingers.

Maestros

• Ali Akbar Khan
• Allauddin Khan
• Sharan Rani Backliwal
• Debojyoti Bose
• Mohammad Amir Khan

Fun Fact

A student of Ali Akbar Khan once mentioned,

“He could find out within a hundred and fifty students, which student had which string out of tune and by how many semitones off, and a sarod can have upto 25 string!”

Images & Content courtesy: Furtados Music

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Caralisa Monteiro

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Guy Ritchie's movie RocknRolla

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