Amir Khusro (1253-1325), a Sufi mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya contributed a lot to northern Indian music. He was a famous poet and musicologist. He had a deep understanding of both Indian and Persian music styles. Although he used some Persian terms to describe Indian music in his writings, he only played and composed in Indian music.

His main contributions to Indian music are said to be defining the Indian style of Qawwali, invention of Tabla and invention of Sitar. Although these claims are not right. We will discuss his real contributions to Indian music in another post.

The actual Sitar was invented by another great musician named Khusro Khan. Khusro Khan was a royal musician and younger borther of the great vocalist Sadarang in the court of Mughal Emperor Jahandarshah (1664-1713). A historian Dargagh Kuli Khan writes that Khusro khan played a ‘strange thing’. So at that time the Sitar wasn’t even named yet. There were three strings on Khusro Khan’s sitar. The word ‘seh’ meaning ‘three’ comes from Persian and ‘tar’ means ‘a string.’ The Indian Sitar has evolved over time. Nowadays it has seven main strings.

Khusro’s ‘sehtar’ had two brass strings and one steel string. It had 14 frets. The brass strings were tune to the keynote and the fifth (Sa and Pa) and the steel string was tuned to the fourth (Ma). Its head was made from a big dried half squash. The strings were played with index finger of right hand with a finger pick. There were no rules how to hold it, although it was supposed to be played in a sitting position.

Eventually the descendants of Khusro Khan made the new version of Sitar. They first put six strings on it and then eventually added another one. Even today the greatest Sitar players of our time are from that family. They are known as ‘Seni Family’.

Tuning Sitar: Nowadays sitar has seven strings. The names and the tuning order of these strings are like this:
1. First String: This is a steel string. It is also called ‘Baj ka Tar’ or the playing string. It is tuned to the fourth (lower ‘Ma’) of lower octave. Melody of sitar is played on this string.

2. Second and Third string: These are brass strings and are called ‘Jodi ke tar’ (paired strings). These are tuned to the keynote (lower ‘Sa’).
3. Fourth string: This is a steel string and it’s tuned to the fifth (lower ‘Pa’).
4. Fifth String: This is a brass string and its gauge is double than the paired strings (second and third). This is tuned to the fifth (double lower ‘Pa’) of second lower octave. It is called ‘Lurge ka Tar’.
5. Sixth string: It is a steel string and is tuned to the fourth (Ma) of middle octave. It is called ‘chikari ka tar’.
6. Seventh String: This is also a steel string. It is the thinnest of all strings. Some people tune it to the upper keynote (upper Sa) and some tune it to the fifth (Pa) from the middle octave. This is also called ‘chikari ka tar’ or ‘papaea ka Tar’

To tune a Sitar, first a keynote is created by another instrument (a Harmonium, a tuner or a tuning fork etc.) or if it’s a solo performance the player can tune the sitar by itself. Here are the steps:
1. Jodi ke Tar (the paired strings) are first tuned to the given note or by themselves to the lower keynote.
2. The first string is tuned to the lower octave’s Fourth (Ma).
3. Then the fourth string is tuned to the lower octave’s Fifth (Pa).
4. Next the fifth (fattest) string is tuned one octave lower to the fourth string (very low fifth, or ati-mander Pa).
5. The sixth string is tuned exactly one octave higher to the paired strings (second and third) to the middle (Sa).
6. Finally the seventh string is tuned one octave higher to the sixth string. As mentioned earlier, some people tune it to the fifth rather than the eighth.

Above tuning order is important to create a just intonation scale. That is something I have totally ignored in the basic theory. We will discuss the position of notes in different scales in the advance theory.

Sitar also has secondary strings or the sympathetic strings. Normally these are not played directly. These strings are tuned to all the notes used in the composition to be played. We will discuss the exact tuning order of these strings in the advance theory. When a note is played on a primary string the sympathetic strings vibrate by themselves. Almost all original Indian stringed instruments have sympathetic strings. These strings add a special ring or sustain to every note.

Moveable and unmovable frets: If you have seen a sitar, you may have noticed that some sitars’ frets can be adjusted and some are fixed. The sitars with moving frets have 17 frets. In these sitars the Vikrat (moved or flat and sharps) notes are adjusted by moving the frets to the appropriate position.
In the fixed fret style, there are 19 frets. They are positioned with semitone differences and cannot be moved. Some fixed style sitars have 22 or 24 frets too. It depends on the designers’ and players’ choices.

Sounds of Sitar: The sitar has two basic sounds ‘Da’ and ‘Ra’. ‘Da’ is when a string is plucked towards the player and ‘Ra’ is when a string is plucked away from the player. The notation of sitar is written in these two ‘boles’ or sounds under the appropriate notes.
Such as:

If there are two notes and only one pluck, as the first and second pluck in the given example, the second note is a slurred note. On sitar, pulling the string creates the slurred notes. The beauty of playing sitar is in its unique slur style. Pandit Ravi Shankar is the most famous sitar player of our time.

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