Surbahar
(सुरबहार)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 heavy strings.
£600 - £4,000
Student surbahars from Indian workshops start around £600, and professional concert instruments from specialist makers in Kolkata or Varanasi cost £1,500 to £4,000. Kolkata is a centre of surbahar making; ask us for a current quote.
Explore the discipline
Meet the musical tradition, its practitioners and ways to learn.
History & Origins
What is a surbahar?
The surbahar is the bass sitar of Hindustani classical music, a large plucked, fretted lute built for slow, dhrupad-style alap, and ours suits the sitarist ready for the deep register and the dhrupad specialist. Larger and heavier than a sitar, it gives a deep, resonant tone with a long decay that lets each note hang between phrases.
Its resonator is a large dried gourd, cut flat and covered by a wooden soundboard, far wider than a sitar's, which gives its bass projection; a wide, heavy neck carries heavy steel strings. It has 17 to 23 strings: four main strings, four or five drones and up to 13 sympathetic strings tuned to the raga. Wide, movable metal frets let one note glide through a large interval, a meend, and the jawari bridge sets the buzz. A wire mizrab on the index finger plucks the strings.
The surbahar's core is dhrupad-ang alap, the slow, unmetered opening of a raga, then jor and jhala; a traditional recital runs two to three hours, the first ninety minutes in surbahar alap. Players hold it more upright than a sitar, in a wider seat for the long neck, the gourd on the left foot or a low cushion. Players of the Imdad Khan family took the alap on surbahar and moved to sitar for the gat with tabla. Imrat Khan and Annapurna Devi set the alap standard; it remains a specialist's instrument.
The surbahar's documented origin places it in Lucknow in the early 19th century, during the cultural patronage of the Nawabs of Awadh. Ghulam Mohammad, a musician at the court around 1825, adapted the sitar's construction at a much larger scale to produce a bass-register instrument capable of sustaining long melodic phrases at slow tempos. The instrument filled a gap: the sitar's quick decay suited faster compositions, but the slow dhrupad-style alap tradition demanded an instrument whose notes could hang in the air between phrases. The surbahar provided that sustain. Its early repertoire drew on the dhrupad tradition of the Beenkar school. It carried the been's deep, unhurried phrasing onto a fretted string instrument.
The Imdad Khan gharana, centred on Imdad Khan (1848–1920) of the Etawah lineage, developed the surbahar into a standard part of sitar teaching. Imdad Khan paired sitar and surbahar in his own practice, using the surbahar for alap and the sitar for composed gat sections. His son Inayat Khan (1895–1938) continued the pairing, and the tradition passed to Inayat Khan's sons Vilayat Khan and Imrat Khan. Vilayat Khan became one of the leading sitarists of the 20th century; Imrat Khan championed the surbahar alongside his sitar playing and made recordings that are still the clearest record of the surbahar in full concert use.
Annapurna Devi, daughter of Allauddin Khan and wife of Ravi Shankar for a period, played surbahar. She withdrew from public performance in the 1950s and gave no concerts thereafter, but taught from her home in Mumbai; her students, including Hariprasad Chaurasia and Nikhil Banerjee, have spoken of her surbahar playing as the reference standard for the instrument. The young Ravi Shankar also studied surbahar before concentrating on sitar alone. The instrument's public presence contracted through the late 20th century as fewer players chose to maintain two large, demanding instruments; the surbahar survives today as a specialist instrument associated with the alap tradition and the Imdad Khan and Maihar lineages.
Construction & Craftsmanship
Construction Process
The resonator is a large dried gourd, the tumba, deeper and wider than a sitar's and cut flat in the kachua style, then cleaned and lacquered. Its size sets the bass character, and makers choose gourds of even wall and symmetrical shape. A wooden soundboard, the tabli, covers it, often carved and edged in bone, and a carved yoke, the gulu, joins it to the hollow neck of tun wood, wider and heavier than a sitar's to carry heavier strings.
Frets of steel, wide and arched, tie on with gut, nylon or cord, and players move them to set each raga's intervals; concert instruments carry 16 to 22. Two to five heavy main strings and the chikari drones run above, and sympathetic strings pass through the bridge below. Main and sympathetic bridges of bone or deer horn have curved jawari tops that the maker shapes until buzz and clarity balance.
The mizrab is bent steel wire with a flat striking tip, worn wider on the finger than a sitar's; some players wear three for alap, jor and jhala. Heavy strings drift more than a sitar's, so tune before each raga and recheck after the alap.
Maintenance & Care
- The large tumba is vulnerable to impact and to humidity change. Store the instrument in a padded hard case with the gourd supported, not resting against a hard surface. Keep the gourd away from direct heat; a dried gourd that loses more moisture can crack along its natural seam lines. In very dry conditions, place a small open container of water inside the closed case to raise local humidity around the instrument.
- Check the fret thread before each performance; loose frets buzz out of place and shift intonation. For a new raga with different intervals, retie the relevant frets with gut or nylon thread, checking pitch against a reference before playing. Keep spare fret wire and thread in the case. Bent frets produce uneven intonation across the neck width; straighten or replace them before performing.
- Tune the strings with a chromatic tuner and peg key before each session. The heavy main strings go flat with temperature drop and sharp with warmth; allow the instrument to acclimatise for 10–15 minutes in a new environment before tuning. Replace main strings that show visible kinking, corrosion or loss of brightness; replace the full set together to maintain balanced tension across the bridge. Sympathetic strings are finer and break more often; keep a spare set of each gauge in the case.
- The bone or deer-horn bridge sets the characteristic jawari buzz. Do not oil or sand the bridge without our guidance; changing its profile alters the entire tonal character of the instrument. If the jawari buzz disappears or becomes harsh, bring the instrument to us for bridge adjustment. Protect the bridge from impact during transport by wrapping the string-crossing point in soft cloth before casing.
- The surbahar's weight puts stress on the neck joint, where neck meets tumba. Inspect the joint each year for loosening; a joint that moves under string tension will throw the instrument out of tune and can crack the gourd. Keep the instrument away from temperature extremes that cause the wood and gourd to expand and contract at different rates. If the neck joint shows any movement, send the instrument to us before the joint separates further.
Technical Specifications
Detailed specifications for the Surbahar
Physical dimensions
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Total instrument length | 110–130 cm |
| Gourd diameter | 28–36 cm |
| Neck width | 6–8 cm |
| Neck length | 70–80 cm |
| Weight | 3–5 kg |
Body & construction
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Resonator | Flat-cut dried gourd (tumba) with wooden soundboard (tabli) |
| Neck wood | Tun wood (Toona ciliata), hollow, with a wooden fingerboard |
| Secondary resonator | Small gourd at neck top (some instruments) |
| Fret type | Moveable steel or bone arches, tied with gut, nylon or cord |
| Fret count | 16–22 (13 to 21 on museum examples) |
String system
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Main playing strings | 2–4 (heavy-gauge steel wound with metal) |
| Drone strings (chikari) | 4–5 |
| Sympathetic strings (taraf) | 9–13 |
| Total strings | 17–23 |
| Bridges | Bone or deer-horn bridges (main and sympathetic) with curved jawari tops |
Playing equipment
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Plectrum name | Mizrab |
| Plectrum material | Bent steel wire wound into a ring with a flat striking tip |
| Right-hand technique | Downstroke (da) and upstroke (ra) mizrab strokes; pure dhrupad-ang alap keeps to da |
| Left-hand technique | Fingertip press on the fret; lateral meend pull across the fret |
| Playing position | Seated; large gourd on left foot or cushion |
Acoustic characteristics
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Tonal character | Deep, resonant bass with long sustain |
| Sustain | Long (large gourd volume and sympathetic resonance) |
| Optimal use | Dhrupad-ang alap, jor and jhala in the lower and middle octaves |
| Dynamic range | Soft to full bass projection |
| Projection | Medium-high (concert hall without amplification) |
Available Instruments
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Contact for Custom OrderYour Journey to Surbahar Mastery
Follow this structured path from absolute beginner to accomplished performer
Seated posture and mizrab grip
KalaSudha's beginners start here: Foundation, the opening level of our courses. Seat the surbahar across the lap, the large gourd on the left foot or a low cushion. Wear the mizrab, the wire plectrum, on the right index finger and strike the main string with inward da strokes, the standard stroke of dhrupad-ang playing. Practise single strokes very slowly, listening to each note's full decay before the next.
Fret navigation and meend
Alap structure in dhrupad-ang style
Jor and jhala development
Raga repertoire and concert practice
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the surbahar, the bass sitar of Hindustani music?
The 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.
How can a beginner, a sitarist or someone returning after a long break start learning the surbahar, the bass sitar?
KalaSudha teaches the surbahar online and in workshops, and a beginner starts at Foundation level. You start with the inward da stroke, played very slowly with the mizrab, the wire plectrum. We teach children as well as adults, so ask us about a starting age and about a size for a younger learner.
Taking up the surbahar again after a long break, you start where you left off: our courses run in levels. Your teacher reviews where you stand first.
Where can I buy a surbahar outside India, with international shipping, strings and service after the sale?
You can buy a surbahar from KalaSudha outside India: we sell it by quote or made to order and deliver worldwide. We pack every instrument for international shipping and can advise on cases and insurance.
We service and repair any surbahar worldwide, including one bought elsewhere. Ask us for strings and spare parts too. For help after the sale, use the chat on any page or email [email protected]. Ask us about gift vouchers too, and about class sets for schools or a flight case for travel.
How long and how wide is a surbahar?
Two museum surbahars measure 1,340 mm and 1,500 mm long, and both are 390 mm wide; one is 340 mm deep. The resonator is a large dried gourd cut flat and set horizontally, which gives a shallower, rounder body than the sitar's upright gourd. It is a larger, lower-pitched version of the sitar.
How many strings does a surbahar have?
String counts vary between surbahars. Museum examples show five main pegs and two side pegs for the chikari strings, with seven or 11 sympathetic strings. Players choose the gauge of the main string: Annapurna Devi, Vilayat Khan and Imrat Khan used a No. 5 main string and Rais Khan a No. 6, and the jawari must be adjusted to suit it.
Who are the best-known surbahar players?
Imrat Khan (1935 to 2018) performed and recorded on sitar and surbahar from 1961 and was known internationally for promoting the surbahar. Annapurna Devi (1927 to 2018), daughter of Allauddin Khan, specialised in it. Vilayat Khan recorded Kafi Kanada and Bilaskhani Todi on surbahar late in life. Budhaditya Mukherjee, Kushal Das and Shujaat Khan are among other players named in sources.
What kind of music is played on the surbahar?
The surbahar's core repertoire is alap, jor and jhala in the dhrupad-derived style, and a player may follow with a slow dhrupad composition accompanied by pakhawaj. In the Imdad Khan family, musicians played a rudra-veena-style alap on surbahar and then the composed bandishes on sitar. In Annapurna Devi's gharana the surbahar was used for alap-jod-jhala, occasionally with tar paran and dhrupad compositions.
Who invented the surbahar, and when?
Most writers credit Ghulam Mohammad, a sitarist of Lucknow, with inventing the surbahar around 1825. An 1877 file at the Berlin Ethnological Museum gives the same attribution and places the invention 50 to 60 years earlier. Some sources credit Sahebdad Khan instead, the father of Imdad Khan; Deepak Raja reports that scholars favour Ghulam Mohammad.
Why was the surbahar invented?
The surbahar was devised so sitarists could play the low-register alap of dhrupad and the rudra veena, or been. This mattered partly because the been was taught only within hereditary been-playing families. The flat-backed kachua sitar, or kachhapi vina, most likely inspired the design, and an 1877 Berlin record calls the surbahar a large type of kachhapi vina.
How does the surbahar differ from the sitar?
The surbahar is a larger, lower-pitched version of the sitar. Its gourd is cut flat and set horizontally, giving a shallower, rounder body than the sitar's upright gourd. Wide frets allow meend, a pulled glide, of up to an octave on a single fret, so the surbahar idiom rests mainly on meend, with little fretwork.
How do I book a surbahar player for a dhrupad-style alap recital, an event or a recording?
You can ask KalaSudha to book a surbahar player for a concert, event or recording. The surbahar is a specialist's instrument for slow, dhrupad-style alap, the unmetered opening of a raga. Request a player through our page to book Indian classical musicians, and hear our artists in KalaSudha's recordings and concert videos.
Have more questions? Contact our support team and we'll be happy to help!
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