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url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-gb/faq/instruments-artforms/how-do-you-hold-an-esraj'
title: 'How do you hold an esraj?'
author:
  name: rajeevk
  url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-gb/user/fdfe7927a034173f'
date: '2026-10-19T15:05:18+00:00'
type: website
summary: 'Esraj posture varies: on the floor, on a cloth ring, between the thighs, or upright on the right foot in the Santiniketan style.'
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 FAQ · Instruments & artforms

# How do you hold an esraj?

 Updated 19 October 2026

 

Players hold the **[esraj](/instrument/esraj)** in several ways. Early players rested the neck on the shoulder and the gourd on the floor, Punjabi players rest the gourd on a cloth ring, and Lucknow players hold it between the thighs. In Bishnupur, Surendranath Bandyopadhyay devised a seated posture with the right leg over the left and the gourd upright on the right foot, which became the Santiniketan posture.



 

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## Related pages

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###  Instruments (1) 

- [   Esraj The esraj is a bowed, fretted lute with sympathetic strings, played upright with a horsehair bow in Hindustani music, Rabindra Sangeet and Bengali devotional…     ](/en-gb/instrument/esraj)
 
  

 

 

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