Music Technology & Sports Junction

The Sitar  is a plucked stringed instrument used mainly in Hindustani music and Indian classical music. The instrument descended from long-necked lutes taken to North India from Central Asia and is also believed to be influenced by the Veena. The sitar flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries and arrived at its present form in the 18th century Mughal period. The first prototype instruments were invented during the Delhi Sultanate period of the 13th and 14th centuries, when the Persian patrons of music and poetry encouraged innovation in Indian art. It is named after a Persian instrument called the setar (meaning "three strings"). Amir Khusrow the great Sufi musician laid the foundation for its development in the 13th century, making it the bedrock of Indian classical music.It subsequently underwent changes during the 18th century to become the instrument we are familiar with today. It derives its distinctive timbre and resonance from sympathetic strings, bridgedesign, a long hollow neck and a gourd resonating chamber.

Used widely throughout the Indian subcontinent, the sitar became known in the western world through the work of Ravi Shankarbeginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s.The sitar saw further use in popular music after the Beatles featured the sitar in their compositions "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", "Within You Without You" and "Love You To". Their use of the instrument came as a result of George Harrison's taking lessons on how to play it from Shankar and Shambhu Das. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones also used a sitar in "Paint It Black" and a brief fad began for using the instrument in pop songs.