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title: 'What is a sarod?'
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date: '2026-10-19T15:00:48+00:00'
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summary: 'The sarod is a fretless plucked lute with a goatskin belly and a metal fingerboard; its immediate precursor is the Afghan rabab.'
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  FAQ · Instruments & artforms

# What is a sarod?

 Updated 19 October 2026

 The **[sarod](/instrument/sarod)** is a fretless plucked lute of Hindustani classical music, classed by museums as a necked bowl lute. A goatskin belly covers the face of a wooden bowl, usually teak, and the player stops the strings on a smooth metal fingerboard. Its immediate precursor is the Afghan rabab, carried into North India by Pashtun musicians.



 

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- [   Sarod A fretless plucked lute from North India, the sarod spans three octaves on a steel fingerboard with 19 to 25 strings, played in Hindustani music with a coconut…     ](/en-in/instrument/sarod)
 
  

 

 

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