Sursingar

The sursingar is a plucked, unfretted lute of Hindustani music, developed from the seni rabab of the Senia lineage. A cut gourd closed with a wooden cover forms the resonator, and a fretless metal plate covers the fingerboard. It served as a solo dhrupad instrument in the 19th and 20th centuries and suited slow alap.

You can learn the sursingar with KalaSudha online and in workshops, from Foundation level. The first stage teaches you to strike the metal strings with wire, building even downstrokes and upstrokes before the left hand moves on the fretless plate. We teach children as well as adults; ask us about a starting age and about a size for a younger learner.

Returning players start again where they left off, however long the break. The levels in our courses make that possible, once your teacher has reviewed where you stand.

A sursingar's resonator is a cut gourd closed with a wooden cover, attached to a hollow wooden neck with a fretless metal plate. The V&A records wood, ivory and gourd; the Met records tun wood, gourd, bone, ivory, gut and wire. Heritage instruments were usually mahogany or teak, now scarce, so revival makers use substitute woods.

Accounts of the sursingar's strings vary. Some give six main strings on a flat bridge plus two strings for drone and rhythm, and the V&A's 19th-century example has 14 pegs. The strings are steel, bronze or brass; metal replaced earlier gut.

Sursingar players strike the metal strings with wire. Sourindro Mohun Tagore, writing in 1877, names an iron plectrum, the java; other accounts describe wire mizrabs worn on the right-hand fingers. The instrument is held at a slant or upright, its upper part resting on the left shoulder. The fretless metal fingerboard allows glides, or meend, of up to two octaves.

Players describe the sursingar's sound as low and long-sustaining, lower than the rudra veena. Its fretless metal fingerboard lets the player glide between notes, up to two octaves, and eases gamak and other graces. It served as a solo dhrupad instrument and suited slow, vilambit alap.

Several spellings of sursingar are in use: sursingar, sursringar, surshringar and sur-sringara. The Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogues its example, dated about 1880, as a sursanga. The V&A holds a 19th-century example, so the instrument existed in collectable form by the later 19th century.

Accounts disagree on who invented the sursingar. The most repeated story credits Jafar Khan, a senia rabab player descended from Tansen; the instrument dates from around 1830. In that story he built it in Benares for the Maharaja of Kashi in the monsoon, when humidity slackened the rabab's skin and gut strings. Other accounts credit the brothers Pyar Khan, Jafar Khan and Basit Khan.

Before buying a sursingar, expect custom work: revival players report that suitable timbers are scarce and that instruments are built in close collaboration with makers. Fingerboard length, the size of the tabli (sound table) and the distance of the pegs from the bridge all vary. Traditional instruments were very large, and revival makers resize the tabli and use other bridge materials.

KalaSudha sells the sursingar outside India, by quote or made to order, and delivers worldwide. Before it travels, we pack your sursingar for international shipping; ask us about a case and insurance.

We service and repair any sursingar worldwide, including one bought elsewhere. Strings and spare parts come from us too. For help with your instrument after the sale, ask us through the chat on any page or by email at [email protected]. Gift vouchers, class sets for schools and flight cases for travel: ask us about those too.

Ask KalaSudha to book a sursingar player for a concert, event or recording. The sursingar suits the long dhrupad alap, in a register lower than the sarod. Request a player through our page to book Indian classical musicians, and listen to our artists first in KalaSudha's recordings and concert videos.