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title: 'What is a surbahar?'
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date: '2026-10-19T15:02:12+00:00'
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summary: 'The surbahar is a larger, lower-pitched relative of the sitar, played mainly for alap, jor and jhala in the dhrupad-derived style.'
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  FAQ · Instruments & artforms

# What is a surbahar?

 Updated 19 October 2026

 The **[surbahar](/instrument/surbahar)** is a plucked, fretted, long-necked lute of Hindustani music, built as a larger, lower-pitched version of the sitar and often called the bass sitar. Museums class it as a necked bowl lute. Its core repertoire is alap, jor and jhala in the dhrupad-derived style, sometimes followed by a slow dhrupad composition with pakhawaj.



 

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 ###  Instruments (1) 

- [   Surbahar A large bass sitar from 19th-century Lucknow, the surbahar specialises in dhrupad-style alap, with deep, sustained tones from a flat-cut gourd, wide frets and…     ](/en-int/instrument/surbahar)
 
  

 

 

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