The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in the classical music of Hindustan (northern India, Bangladesh and Pakistan). The sarod is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet, overtone-rich texture of the sitar, with sympathetic strings that give it a resonant, reverberant quality. It is a fretless instrument able to produce the continuous slides between notes known as meend (glissandi), which are very important to Indian music.
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The sarod is believed by some to have descended from the Afghan rubab, a similar instrument originating in Central Asia and Afghanistan. [1] The name Sarod roughly translates to "beautiful sound" or "melody" in Persian (which is one of the many languages spoken in Afghanistan). Although the sarod has been referred to as a "bass rubab"[2] its pitch range is only slightly lower than that of the rubab. Lalmani Misra opines in his Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya that the sarod is a combination of the ancient chitra veena, the medieval rubab and modern sursingar. There is also speculation that the oud may be the origin of the sarod.
Among the many conflicting and contested histories of the Sarod, there is one that attributes its invention to the ancestors of the present-day Sarod maestro, Amjad Ali Khan. Amjad Ali Khan’s ancestor Mohammad Hashmi Khan Bangash, a musician and horse trader, came to India with the Afghan rubab in the mid-18th century and became a court musician to the Maharajah of Rewa (now in Madhya Pradesh). It was his descendants, notably his grandson Ghulam Ali Khan Bangash, a court musician in Gwalior, who changed the rubab into the sarod we know today.[3] A parallel theory credits descendants of Madar Khan, Niyamatullah Khan in particular, with the same innovation circa 1820. The sarod in its present recognisable form dates back to approximately 1820, when it started gaining recognition as a serious instrument in Rewa, Shahjahanpur, Gwalior and Lucknow. In the 20th century, the sarod received some finishing touches from Allauddin Khan, the performer-pedagogue from Maihar best known as Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan's guru.
The design of the instrument depends on the school (gharana) of playing. There are three distinguishable types, discussed below.
The conventional sarod is an 20-25-stringed lute-like instrument – four to five main strings used for playing the melody, one or two drone strings, two chikari strings and nine to eleven sympathetic strings. The design of this early model is generally credited to Niyamatullah Khan of the Lucknow Gharana as well as Ghulam Ali Khan of the Gwalior-Bangash Gharana. Among the contemporary sarod players, this basic design is kept intact by two streams of sarod playing. Amjad Ali Khan and his disciples play this model, as do the followers of Radhika Mohan Maitra. Both Amjad Ali Khan and Buddhadev Dasgupta have introduced minor changes to their respective instruments which have become the design templates for their followers. Both musicians use sarods made of teak wood, with the playing face covered with goat skin. Buddhadev Dasgupta prefers a polished stainless steel fingerboard for the ease of maintenance while Amjad Ali Khan uses the conventional chrome or nickel-plated cast steel fingerboard. Visually, the two variants are similar, with six pegs in the main pegbox, two rounded chikari pegs and 11 (Amjad) to 15 (Buddhadev) sympathetic strings. The descendants of Niyamatullah Khan (namely Irfan Khan and Ghulfam Khan) also play similar instruments. The followers of Radhika Mohan Maitra still carry the second resonator on their sarods. Amjad Ali Khan and his followers have rejected the resonator altogether. These instruments are typically tuned to B, which is the traditional setting.
Two of the earliest sarods are still in concert circulation. These are the sarods built for Niyamatullah Khan (c. 1840) and for Murad Ali Khan (c. 1860). Both have seen extensive use for over five generations, and are in perfect playing condition. As a result of the resurgence of these two early prototypes, the theories that proclaim the 20th-century variants to represent the zenith of sarod design, face a serious and credible challenge. The Murad Ali sarod, in particular, has acoustic sustainability and projection that surpasses those of modern variants by a considerable margin. On this sarod, it is possible to sustain meends of up to ten whole tones on one string, with just one downward stroke.
Another type is that designed by Allauddin Khan and his brother Ayet Ali Khan. This instrument, referred to by David Trasoff (Trasoff, 2000) as the 1934 Maihar Prototype, is larger and longer than the conventional instrument, though the fingerboard is identical to the traditional sarod described above. This instrument has 25 strings in all. These include four main strings, four jod strings (tuned to Ni or Dha, R/r, G/g and Sa respectively), two chikari strings (tuned to Sa of the upper octave) and fifteen tarab strings. The main strings are tuned to Ma ("fa"), Sa ("do"), lower Pa ("so") and lower Sa, giving the instrument a range of three octaves. The Maihar sarod lends itself extremely well to the presentation of alap with the four jod strings providing a backdrop for the ambiance of the raga. This variant is, however, not conducive to the performance of clean right-hand picking on individual strings. The instrument is typically tuned to C.
Sarod strings are made either of steel or phosphor bronze. Most contemporary sarod players use Roslau, Schaff or Precision brand music wire. The strings are plucked with a triangular plectrum (java) made of polished coconut shell, ebony, DelrinTM or other such materials.
The lack of frets and the tension of the strings make the sarod a very demanding instrument to play, as the strings must be pressed hard against the fingerboard.
There are two approaches to stopping the strings of the sarod. One involves using the tip of one's fingernails to stop the strings, and the other uses a combination of the nail and the fingertip to stop the strings against the fingerboard.[3]
Fingering techniques and how they are taught depends largely on the personal preferences of musicians rather than on the basis of school affiliation. Radhika Mohan Maitra, for example, used the index, middle and ring finger of his left hand to stop the string, just like followers of Allauddin Khan do. Maitra, however, made much more extensive use of the third fingernail for slides and hammers. Amjad Ali Khan, while a member of approximately the same stylistic school as Radhika Mohan, prefers to use just the index and middle fingers of his left hand. Amjad Ali is, however, pictured circa 1960 playing with all three fingers.
Aasish Khan played the sarod on the George Harrison Beatles song The Inner Light (song), in the style of an acoustic guitar: staccato in the upper register and without bending of notes.[4]