Talk:Sitar

Persian Origins?
This remainds me of claim that America was discovered by Muslims and Native Americans had islamic names, as being taught in some forign sponsered schools in US. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.61.112.72 (talk) 12:17, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Rudra Veena is the mother of all stringed intruments. Rudra is another name of Lord Shiva and therefore this intrument is associated with Lord Shiva or Rudra. Lord Shiva made the first Rudra veena and used his own intensities as stings for the same. The Hindu scriptures tells about Rudra Veena as an intrument being played by Gods and Goddesses. It is said that Shiva passed on the art of music to Goddess Saraswati who in turn paased on to Rishi Narada and Hanumantha, who brought it on Earth. That is how man was able to learn this art. A variety of Veenas, drums, pipes , gongs and bells are shown in the ancient sculptures of Bharht, gandhara, Amaravati, Sandhi, Nagarjuna Konda, Konark, temples of India and the frescoes and paintings of Ajanta, Bagh Tanjavoer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by VedicRoots (talk • contribs) 23:48, 17 July 2013 (UTC)

The word Sitar is said to be a corruption of the word Sehtar. This doesn't stand to reason because:

(1) The three-stringed instrument tritantri and the seven-stringed instrument saptatantri were in existence centuries before Amir Khusro. 165 years before Prophet Mohammed there lived a singer and poet called Jarham Binatoi who participated in a Poetry Conference in India for three years in succession. The three poems he read at the Conference were etched on golden plates and hung at Mecca. Jarham Binatoi writes:

"The people of India are fortunate that Raja Vikram (also called Samudragupta) is their ruler. He is generous, religious, concientious, and a great musician. His sehtar-playing is such that the listeners' heart-buds blossom. He treated us foreigners also kindly. He sent many scholars of his community to spread the message of the holy religion and they shine like the Sun in our country. From these great men we learnt ishwar-jnana, sangeet-jnana, kavya-jnana, samajik-jnana and learnt playing the sehtar for bliss. These men had come to our country on instructions from Raja Vikram to spread knowl edge, religion and music."

Coins are also available on which King Vikramaditya is seen playing the parivaadini. This is conclusive evidence that the Sitar is Indian in origin.

2) There is no word in Persian from which the word sitar is derived. The word sitar is derived from the Sanskrit root SA (to bind). It is made of SIT + AAr + R = SITHAE : Sit= BANDHANAE:, AH = SAMANTHATH, RA = RAJAYATHI ETHI, thus SITAR means an instrument which through fastenings gives pleasure from all sides. In the Sitar strings are fastened. pardaas are fastened mijraaf is fastened,gats are bound by rhythm. Thus, the Sitar is an instrument which is full of fastenings (BANDHAN). Even if one of these is violated it affects the pleasure. So the word sitar is not a corruption of any Persian word but a pure Sanskrit word.

Very convoluted. Why not thus: 'sitar (n.) ..., from Hindi sitar, from Persian sitar "three-stringed," from si "three" (Old Persian thri-; see three) + tar "string," from PIE root *ten- "to stretch." (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=sitar) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.20.154.64 (talk) 11:37, 7 June 2017 (UTC)

3) The Sehtar had three strings whereas the Sitar has seven. But there is no gainsaying the fact that Amir Khusro, the versatile genius, gave the Sitar a great fillip and did much to popularize it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by VedicRoots (talk • contribs) 23:46, 17 July 2013 (UTC)

Question
Where is the written playing range? The page should include that... if someone can find it, please may you put it in?

Kharaj Pancham v.s. Grandar Pancham
These are two very distinct styles of sitar. The Kharaj pancham style had seven main strings and is tuned in the style or ravi shankar, whereas the Grandar Pancham style is how Ustad Vilayat Khan tuned his sitar, and is the more traditional tuning. Does everyone approve?

Tuning the sitar
''An artist will develop a particular tuning for a particular piece and it may be totally idiosyncratic. There is no guarantee that other musicians will choose the same tuning even if they perform the same raga.''

This is not true, unless the musician is doing something incorrectly. There are right ways to tune to the raga that one is playing; thus while the komal rishab of a bhairav may be different from that of Marwa, competent musicians differentiate between the two correctly, and therefore tune consistently.

I want to give the original author a chance to respond before I edit.Rasputin98 20:47, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm not the original author, but wouldn't positing a "correct" way to tune the sitar be a bit dogmatic and closed-minded? He has his way of tuning, and I'm sure others have theirs just as you have yours, from whichever gharana. Let's live and let live.

--Treeblock 22:33, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

I did not change the quoted text because on subsequent rereading, it did not seem as egregious. However, I maintain that while there may be multiple ways of tuning for a raga, it can not be totally idiosyncratic. Tuning the chikaris to vivadi notes would lead to unpleasant overtones; moreover, the shrutis pertaining to the raga should be preserved; for instance, you cannot arbitrarily tune a string to the Tivra Ma that pertains to Yaman. As someone who is still grappling with shrutis, I only know too well the results.

Rasputin98 15:33, 5 December 2006 (UTC)


 * There are two different concepts in regards to tuning: the main strings and the sympathetic strings. As such, each one should be dealt with seperately.
 * I agree that term "idiosyncratic" is proper, espeically in regards to the sympathetic strings - even with the same performer. What do I mean? On a sitar with 13 sympathetic strings, traditionally you will have at least 4 of them duplicating the pitches of other strings. Which pitches get duplicated is not only based on the raga, but also the resonance of the instrument itself. If you have two sitars, and for some reason a certain string is louder on one as opposed to the other - on the latter a performer may want to duplicate that pitch to compensate. Added to this is that certain schools/playing styles will advocate for certain pitches to be duplicated over others depending on how they were taught to develope the raga.
 * In regards to the main strings, there are many variations as well. You even have diversity within the same gharana. For example, Ravi Shankar would remove the pa chikari string from his sitar (which is ironic since the "Ravi Shankar tuning" includes it) in order to give more room for the kharaj/pancham strings; but his student Shubhendra Rao, despite initially not having it as well, has been using it for the past 2 decades because he likes the sound of it. Brak (talk) 19:07, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

Linking Of Sitar to Hindustani
It is incorrect to say that the sitar is hindustani, since firstly it was created (whichever account you think is correct) by a muslim in the subcontinent. Secondly there was no Hindustan back then there was the Indian Subcontinent. Thirdly the sitar is as much common in Pakistan as it is in India. So to say that the sitar is a Hindustani classical instrument is as incorrect as to say sufis were a part of the hindustani culture. No changes have been made as yet but i suggest that this is something that needs attention.

The above statement is absurd. It is not controversial to state that the sitar is a part of Hindustani music. Muslim musicians acknowledge this and have always acknowledged it. Furthermore there was indeed a Hindustan "back then". If I play a sitar in the UK and I'm a Jew, then does it make it any less a Hindustani instrument? Absurd. --Treeblock 22:33, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Agreed with Treeblock. "Hindustani" refers to the mixed Indian-Muslim culture of the Northern subcontinent. In my mind this includes any Muslim contributions to such a culture, as well as more muslim parts of the subcontinent, such as Eastern Pakistan etc etc. 66.58.219.109 19:23, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Ancient Indian sub-continent also covered the then Persian empire and thus heavily influenced the people their with its own musical instruments and music style. The Persians borrowed 7-stringed Sitar from the then Bharat and created Sehtar (3 stringed instrument). By the way Persians are not MUSLIMS and MUSLIMS have nothing to do with inventing MUSICAL Instruments as music was forbidden in Islam then also as it is now. The Sufis had their contribution of Music to Indian music but certainly SITAR is Indian in its origin and should not be confused with 3 stringed Persian Instrument Sehtar. During the time of Mughal rule, their was a heavy fusion of Indian and Persian(influenced by Indian music itself) musical styles and instruments for sure.--VedicRoots (talk) 00:21, 18 July 2013 (UTC)

Categorising Sitar as Hindustani Classical Instrument
It is incorrect to say that the sitar is hindustani, since firstly it was created (whichever account you think is correct) by a muslim in the subcontinent. Secondly there was no Hindustan back then there was the Indian Subcontinent. Thirdly the sitar is as much common in Pakistan as it is in India. So to say that the sitar is a Hindustani classical instrument is as incorrect as to say sufis were a part of the hindustani culture.

"The name sitar comes from the Persian sehtar; seh meaning three and tar means string". This sentence suggests lingual differences how can hindu instruments be named according to the persian language?? the hindu culture had its own language - sanskrit and hindi which are quite different from persian.

"Both the tembûr and sehtar were used in pre-Islamic Persia and are used in Iran today" which clearly indicates that the sitar had a persian orign and should be classified accordingly.

No changes have been made as yet but i suggest that this is something that needs attention.


 * As I understand it, "Hindustani" can also include the music of Pakistan and Bangladesh in addition to the of modern day India. (Check out the wikipedia article). Maxxo 14:42, 23 June 2006 (UTC)


 * it can but does it? to me it implies strictly Indian (as in the present day India) a better word would be, i suppose, subcontinental for the pre partition era and Indian/Hindustani, Pakistani and Bangladeshi for the post partition era. Besides doesnt the etymology state that a similar instrument the sehtar existed in Persia/Turkey before? N.B how would it sound if instead of saying Persia Iran was mentioned? ... misleading i'd say. Elaborating on your post would this be correct; Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a Hindustani sufi qawwal? Husein —Preceding unsigned comment added by Husein Najmi (talk • contribs)


 * (Hussein, please sign you post with four tildes. It will be replaced automatically by your user name and date stamp by the Wiki software. Line this: . ≈ jossi ≈  t &bull; @ 16:57, 24 June 2006 (UTC)


 * "Hindusthan" is very general way of refering to the entire indian subcontinent and does not refer specifically to Hinduism as a religion. There are, of course, far more muslims (including sufis) living in India than in Pakisthan.  The word Hind is related to Indus (the river that runs through both modern Pakisthan and India) - and some form of the word that refers to the entire Indian subcontinent has been in use in the West for many thousands of years.  "Hindusthani" is a commonly accepted as way of refering to North Indian Classical music which encompasses the music of the entire region - it may not be the best word to use, but it has a widely accepted and long history of usage.

There is Hindustani music in Pakistan as well. It is not in prominense after independence for some reasons. There is no denying that it is predominantly used in India. Religions are irrelavant here and although name sounds similar its structure is similar to veena. ~rAGU

The term "Hindustan" or "Hindostan" does indeed represent what is now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Saare_Jahan_Se_Achcha is a Urdu poem written by Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistan's national poet. His use of the term "hindostan" did not refer to modern day India alone. Sverma (talk) 17:23, 4 September 2010 (UTC)]]


 * Hindustani music is the genre of music, let's not invent problems where none exists. &mdash; Spaceman  Spiff  18:01, 4 September 2010 (UTC)

Electric Sitars
Surely only on acousitc versions, what sort of pick-ups do electric sitars have? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.214.75.127 (talk • contribs)
 * "It typically has a gourd acting as the resonating chamber."

Do electric sitars even exist?  Da Gizza  Chat (c) 09:48, 6 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I believe so. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.139.85.44 (talk • contribs)
 * Yes. Deltabeignet 21:00, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

What is marketed as an "electric sitar" is just a type of electric guitar with extra strings. It does not look like a sitar, and it is in no way a sitar. Do real electric sitars even exist? I don't know, I haven't seen one. Bossk-Office

I've seen a proper electic sitar, made by Rikhi Ram in Delhi. The pickup didn't seem too special, but I didn't hear it through an amp and I guess it could have been specially selected for use on a sitar. The wiring was, frankly, a bit rubbish. The neat thing about this instrument was that you didn't have to worry about the gourd getting smashed. There was a smaller hollow box, like a sitar version of a semi acoustic electric guitar. It had electric guitar style machine heads for the main strings. Can remember how the sympathetics were tuned. The machine heads weren't great quality either. If I had the spare cash (I'd guess £800ish) I'd get one and then fix it up properly. You could practice relatively quietly in the middle of the night without annoying the neighbours and you could carry it around in a nondescript case and avoid all the clever 'perhaps its a gun of some sort' jokes on the tube/subway. Of course, the full size instrument does confer the benefit that interesting people will sometimes strike up conversations with you. econnor


 * Look at both the link above and search "electric sitar" on such music sites as www.musiciansfriend.com. They both have instruments that, in my opinion would fit any reasonable definition of an "electric sitar".  If you try to extend the analogy from a guitar compared to an electric guitar, you can't judge from the method of resonation, if any.  A guitar is amplified by resonation inside the body; an electric guitar (at least most models!) have no acoustic resonation.  All amplification is electrical.  I would posit that an electric sitar would merely have to have a similar string configuration as acoustic sitars, especially in respect to the drone strings.  As long as this is met, I think it's safe to add one or two sentences about the availiability of electric sitars.  I've gotta confess, when I first read the above section about "electric sitars", I though it was utter crap, but you can't argue with their presence at music stores :-).  GuildNavigator84 13:56, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

There seemed to be some need for it, so I started a new wiki article called "Electric sitar". I know there are some electric sitars out there that actually bear a close resemblence to the "regular" (acoustic?) sitar, but most of the ones that I came across looked like, to quote the poster above, an "electric guitar with extra strings". If the article could be expanded on or improved in any way please do so. Maxxo 22:33, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I just posted this in the Electric Sitar Talk page, and I'm putting it here to make sure it gets noticed: I've found that there are some electric sitars that are more sitar than guitar. Here are some examples: http://www.sitarfactory.be/ The SBS-02 is completely electric since it has no acoustic chambers. I think this article should be changed to "Fusion Sitar," with electric sitar redirecting here, and add some other examples of sitar/guitar and acoustic/electric sitars. signed voodoowitchdr March 7, 2012 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.179.142.211 (talk) 23:19, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Setar
Could anyone make clear which syllable of the Persian word 'setar' means three? If the former 'se' or 'set' does, it is so to speak a false cognate with the Korean adjective 'se' or noun 'ses'. Another one is between the Korean adjective 'du/tu' and Latin 'duo' or English 'two'. --kypark 01:52, 28 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Why would someone assume a Persian word is a false cognate of a Korean one?

/seh/ is three in Persian, /do/ is two and so the Central Asian instrument, the dotār, means 'two string' in the way se(h)tār meas 'three string'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.83.159.228 (talk) 21:41, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Setar means three stringed instrument while Sitar is seven stringed instrument. The word Sitar is completely SANSKRIT as is explained now : The word sitar is derived from the Sanskrit root SA (to bind). It is made of SIT + Ah + R = SITHAE : = BANDHANAE:, AH = SAMANTHATH, RA = RAJAYATHI ETHI SITAR = which means an instrument which through fastenings gives pleasure from all sides. In the Sitar strings are fastened. pardaas are fastened mijraaf is fastened, gats are bound by rhythm. Thus, the Sitar is an instrument which is full of fastenings (BANDHAN). Even if one of these is violated it affects the pleasure. So the word sitar is not a corruption of any Persian word but a pure Sanskrit word. — Preceding unsigned comment added by VedicRoots (talk • contribs) 00:26, 18 July 2013 (UTC)

Notable sitar players
Of course George Harrison is notable, as an early rocker experimenting with the sitar, but how is James Pomerantz notable at all? He is not famous, and while I’m sure he may be a fine player there are dozens of fine players that don’t belong in a list of notables with Vilayat Khan, Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Banerjee. Is Mr Pomerantz a pioneer in any way? The first American sitar student? Anything?
 * I agree and judging from his Wikipedia article (which does need some cleaning up), there is nothing that makes him signifcant.

Sitar Tuning
I would like to see a helpful article on intervals in indian music - like the piano tuning article. Sure you can't provide step by step instructions as you have to have some sort of sense of what you are listening too, but I'm sure there is a way to provide better advice than 'learn to sing and then study hard for 10 years'. econnor

To an extent I share the same view but it's inevitable that the more accessible it becomes for people to take up the sitar on their own without a qualified teacher, the more the standard of this classical music form will suffer and be subjected to misappropriations and contortions. --Treeblock 22:33, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

There are books that one can refer to, and I highly recommend Alain Danielou's books on the subject (http://www.alaindanielou.org/Northern-Indian-Music-R.html for instance). It is important to note though, you really need a teacher or some other means of exposure to this music to have an acceptable sense for these intervals. Rasputin98 (talk) 13:15, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Lead
Why does the lead talk almost entirely of popularity in West. There are much more important things to put there. deeptrivia (talk) 04:14, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Abolutely agreed; the Beatles should just be an incidental. I'll work on that when I find the time. --Lenoxus 22:34, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
 * All right, I got around to it after I saw that a bunch of other people had gotten around to it anyway. I would now like to defend my recent action of moving the Beatles bit to the end of "history" by pointing out that no other sitar song or piece is mentioned in the intro except those of the Beatles. Hopefully, that's cool with everyone... --Lenoxus 01:40, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Use of Sitar in Popular Music
I think the The Kinks song See My Friends predates the release of Help! by one week, but I don't know when it was recorded or who played the sitar. Gnosticdogma 04:47, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

The Disturbed song "Ten-Thousand Fists" Their guitarist (Dan someone or another) doesn't actually use a sitar. It's just a guitar effects pedal.

List of Sitar Players
What happened to the list of sitar players? It seems to have been moved to another page, but following that link just leads one to the wikipedia definition of categories. Searching for "Sitar Players" doesn't yield anything useful either.Rasputin98 14:59, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

List of recognized classical teachers
Could someone kindly add a list? This would serve as a source of reference for people interested in further research with a view to becoming sitarists.

tuning
In the tuning section all of the notes names are listen in the Hindi terms. Westerners who are using this page to learn about the sitar for the first time will find this completely useless, and even some who are aware of sitars but who only know music in western terms will find this difficult to understand. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.229.221.138 (talk • contribs)


 * I agree, I think that there should be something there so that people not familiar with Hindi terms can figure out what they mean. Writing the western notes in scientific notation (like C4, F5) or even in Hz. Jolb 02:34, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Be careful. The Indian scale does not have equal tempering, and therefore the HZ will differ slightly. also The startng pitch for Sa is usaly close to C# but it can vary.--Hacky 23:55, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

picture
I do not think that the picture of a lady holding a "sitar" reflects modern sitars. (ditto to the engraveing) 1: the "sitar" is much to small 2 there is no indicaton of sympathetic strings (no pegs, no holes in the top of the neck, only one brige ect.) While student sitars may not have resinating strings : 3. there are indications of holes in the soundbourd(someting not present in a sitar) 4. the neck is much too thin. (I cannot wrap my hand around one in such a manner) 5. the gourd is not round enough (it is shown as teardrop shaped). I hope to be able to provide a better open source image soon. I think that the image is closer to the persan settar. Thougts? --Hacky 00:30, 10 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Since the image in question has been already deleted (fair-use rationale was not adequate since a free alternative can be found), I took the liberty of replacing it with Image:Setar.jpg, which already on the English Wikipedia as well as in Commons. Perhaps that could do (at least temporarily)? +A.0u 04:23, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

The image shown was not sitar at all. Tanpur and Veana resemble sitar more than Setar. Please write another article for SETAR. This article is on SItar and I saw that the image was not Sitar but something else. I reverted the image and then replaced it with a colour image of a sitar. Those who want to talk about Setar may do so here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setar_%28lute%29. The instrument which women holds in the photo is also not sitar and sitar resembles more with veena more than setar. Moreover sitar is sophesticated instrument with around 20 strings. Would somebody look in to all these and fix them. ~rAGU

Recent edits
Did half of this article disappear overnight? A section describing the instrument mechanics is gone, and in its place we have a reference to a video game character. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Maxxo (talk • contribs) 01:18, 2 May 2007 (UTC).

Sitar Makers?
Are the best sitar makers in the world all Westerners? Anyone else finding this really difficult to believe? Thats like saying the best guitar makers are all in South Asia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.177.215.177 (talk) 04:27, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Where did you see this assertion?Rasputin98 (talk) 13:17, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Sitar playing and salaries
The main article could be improved if it contained information on sitar playing as a trade, and the salaries associated with that trade. Is playing the sitar more lucrative than guitar playing?198.177.27.13 (talk) 05:13, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Sitar and SeTar
Setar = se(3) + Tar (string)  (but now it has 4 strings)

Sitar = Si(30) + Tar (string) (20 ~25 strings)

i belive just pakistanis (becuse of thier accent ) are calling Sitar, Setar. but persian,Indian,turkish and even in english Setar and Sitar are seprate,

Metallica used an electical sitar instead of a traditional one
Hi all, hope everybody's doing fine!

I was reading this Sitar entry and found e reference to Metallica using it in their song "Wherever I may roam".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wherever_I_May_Roam

When reading the entry about this song, I found out that they used an electrical sitar instead of a traditional one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_sitar

And then when reading the entry about the electrical sitar I read "An electric sitar is in fact a kind of electric guitar designed to mimic the sound of the traditional Indian instrument, the sitar".

I think this info is appropriate to mention in the sitar entry.

Thanx & best wish

Robin —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.169.122.30 (talk) 23:27, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Reassessment as Start

 * Too few references
 * famous players not covered
 * undue promotion of Rain City Music site
 * File:Sitar parts.jpg: What is the name of this sitar is it? Usually sitars do not the upper gourd. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 14:04, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Performance Range?
I am curious as to what the frequency range of a sitar is. Also, I noticed that it was compared to a number of other string instruments (both Western and Indian); but not such western classical instruments as the bass, cello, violin, etc. I am also curious how the frequency range of a sitar compares to the aforementioned western classical instruments. I admit that my theoretical understanding of sound is a bit weak and that my knowledge of musical instruments minimal, so the question which I just asked may seem a bit "stupid" to those more knowledgeable; nonetheless I would appreciate a response. Thank You.JeepAssembler (talk) 20:51, 20 November 2009 (UTC)JeepAssemblerJeepAssembler (talk) 20:51, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

A kharaj pancham style sitar covers 4 octaves, a Gandhar Pancham sitar covers 3. The highest 5 notes are less common as they require a great degree of skill to produce accurately. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.185.189.14 (talk) 07:45, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

"It is redefined"?
At the end of the first section is the following paragraph:


 * It is redefined that pioneer of Sitar was NOT the famouse Persian poet Amir Khusro, but Khusro Khan, younger brother of Mian Tansen.(Ref: Research thesis by Dr. Rekha Nigam on the History of Sitar)

This makes only vague sense. I'm guessing that the writer meant
 * It has been established that the pioneer of Sitar was NOT the famouse Persian poet Amir Khusro, but rather Khusro Khan, the younger brother of Mian Tansen.[reference must be corrected]

Is this correct? If so, would someone fix this? --Dan Griscom (talk) 13:24, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Meand/Meend/Aghanistan??
35 years ago when I played the sitar, we spelled it 'meend.' Meend translates into Italian as glissando, into English as sliding or gliding. Yes it does allow microtonal adjustments, but its real beauty and purpose is to imitate the 'sliding' vocal ornamentations of Indian, and especially, Hindustani music. Will someone with access to authoritative sources please include this in the article? Thanks! What's Afghanistan doing here? Something to do with Afghan involvement in Muslim rule of India? I've got more than enough respect for Afghanistan and its people, but there's no direct link between Afghanistan and the creation and development of the sitar. I advocate removing Afghanistan fr/ this page and will do it, if there's no objection. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tapered (talk • contribs) 19:51, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes there is. Sitar is also used in Afghan music as well and Babur himself started his empire from Afghanistan before spreading towards India. He borrowed a lot of elements from Afghanistan and introduced it in India as either "Mughal" or "Persian." Akmal94 (talk) 01:19, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Mechanics copypaste
The "Mechanics" section was evidently copied and pasted from another website, complete with references to non-existent images (see this edit). I'm a little surprised no one noticed this earlier: as written, it runs afoul of WP:MOS, WP:YOU etc. (and again, makes reference to inline images that aren't on Wikipedia). Anyway, I've removed the text and replaced it with the previous version of that section. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 20:09, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you. The page needs a total rewrite. Hekerui (talk) 20:12, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

George Harrison
Re: "the sitar became known in the western world through the work of Pandit Ravi Shankar beginning in the late 1950s, particularly after George Harrison of The Beatles took lessons from Shankar and Shambhu Das[1] and played sitar in songs including "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Shortly after, The Rolling Stones used a sitar in "Paint It Black" and a brief fad began for using the instrument in pop songs."

The section of the above I've emphasized (by rendering it without italics) is a bit misleading. Harrison actually recorded "Norwegian Wood" before he'd even met Shankar. I think the solution is to be less specific. We could say, "the sitar became known in the western world through the work of Pandit Ravi Shankar beginning in the late 1950s, and more widely known still after it became fashionable in pop music in the sixties with its espousal by the Beatles and other groups.''" TheScotch (talk) 06:16, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

String materials
What are the strings made of? FatBear1 (talk) 16:47, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

Etymology and History Cleanup
Firstly, I am by no means even close to familiar with this instrument, so I can't verify any of my info. However, claiming the Setar (not sitar) as a "very soothing instrument" seems extremely un-encyclopedic (one might as well write on the page on grapes "They're considered very tasty"). My second edit was to re-add the history section. Again, I cannot verify that any of this information is accurate, but simply blanking the section does not seem like a reasonable solution. Also, the edits were done by an IP (I realize the hypocrisy in that statement, yes). 2601:4A:C000:2CB0:7487:E481:5D52:59FB (talk) 04:07, 5 November 2019 (UTC)

Veena and sitar
I have removed the assertion that "sitar developed from veena". This information isn't supported by any reliable source. Some authors claim that sitar originated from Veena, but evidence is far too weak for any conclusion Check out citations for my claim. 119.42.56.102 (talk) 16:23, 23 May 2020 (UTC)
 * "Mel Bay" a instrument instruction book is more reliable than Springer? Anyway, your Mel Bay source says "another story holds that sitar developed from Saraswati Vina. A brief look at the structure of this instrument indicates that this is plausible", on page 7. You are promoting the theory that Amir Khusrow invented the sitar, but your source says "If he did invent the sitar, then why does it suddenly disappear, and not show up again for many centuries? We can safely discount this theory." NavjotSR (talk) 07:00, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

No reliable source mentions sitar is modified form of veena. I'll take it to the admins if you'll revert my edit proper reason. First cite a proper source that supports your claim 119.42.56.102 (talk) 03:29, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Read: and other sources, agreeing that Veena is a precursor of Sitar.
 * You have no explanation for above rebuttal and you are still inserting unreliable sources like self published iUniverse. Given you are already canvassing for days, I won't be surprised that you canvass further. NavjotSR (talk) 06:47, 26 May 2020 (UTC)


 * Howdy hello folks! (I'd ping the IP too, but IP's can't get pings) As a note, I have fully protected the page for four days due to your content dispute, meaning neither of you will be able to edit it. Please discuss the issue here in the mean time, and also both of you should take into account our policy against edit warring. Should you be unable to come to a conclusion here, you might wish to ask for a third opinion, or seek dispute resolution, instead of edit warring.  CaptainEek  Edits Ho Cap'n!⚓ 15:49, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Comment: "A NIME Reader" (ie: "Ajay Kapur and al., "The Electronic Sitar Controller", Jensenius and Lyons are the editors) doesn't writes that "the sitar is a modified form of veena", the autors cite the two theories without clearly endorsing any. "precursor" doesn't automatically mean that one instrument is a modification of the other, it can also mean that the string instrument used before the apparition of the sitar was one form of medieval veenas.--Phso2 (talk) 16:36, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
 * The source confirms: "Pragnanananda then concludes that the modern sitar, with seven strings, is a modified version of the ancient citra vina". Pragnanananda is a musicologist. NavjotSR (talk) 05:02, 27 May 2020 (UTC)
 * But the very next sentence of this source is "This line of argument is refuted by evidence (...)"; are you not doing blatant WP:cherrypicking???--Phso2 (talk) 12:19, 27 May 2020 (UTC)
 * See the page 50 and 51, you will find there are arguments that which "vina" influenced creation of Sitar, but it does not exactly states that this theory is refuted. On p.51 it says that Khusru "may have modified" vina into sitar. says Khusru "modified the vina into the sitar." So I would say this information is not exactly invalid. NavjotSR (talk) 04:53, 28 May 2020 (UTC)
 * What the sources say is that there are conflicting theories about the history of sitar with no consensus, and this should appear in the article.--Phso2 (talk) 10:25, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

I think this article should be neutral. There are sources that say veena wasn't precursor of sitar but this article doesn't mention it. It is one sided 119.42.56.102 (talk) 14:48, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Recent poor edits, requires fix.
The English version of this page has been edited poorly, including broken, poorly-translated sentences and typos. The edits appear to be targeted around the topic of the Sitar's historical origins. 92.40.179.16 (talk) 05:36, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

I axed the most obvious candidates for removal, but stopped at that point as I am nowhere near a subject-matter expert. Agree that the article needs extensive rewriting. Mgs2804 (talk) 19:31, 13 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Honestly, it's probably better if the version before the vandalism occurred is just reverted to; reading that version vs. the current one, it's much more encyclopedic than what we have now. No other edits of substance were made after then, anyway. 68.99.131.155 (talk) 00:19, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

Tle
Sitar clasdification 2001:4450:812F:900:EC98:7906:41AD:CA91 (talk) 15:51, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

Reworked the History Section
I think we should remove the lengthy tanbur passages from the article's history section to maintain relevance. Hu741f4 (talk) 15:37, 27 May 2024 (UTC)


 * I have reworked the history section by adding relevant and important information, removing unsourced content, and irrelevant passages. This is the pre-edited version ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sitar&oldid=1225602020 ). Here is the newly worked history section (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sitar&oldid=1226115545).
 * The most important content that I added is this passage which was missing from the history section:
 * "The earliest mention of Sitar dates back to 1739 AD. The 'Muraqqa-i-Dehli', written by Dargah Quli Khan during the reign of Muhammad Shah Rangeela, gives the earliest reference to the sitar. Oral and textual evidence analysed by historians indicate that an eighteenth-century figure of the Mughal court, named Khusrau Khan originated the sitar from the small persian three-stringed setar. In the late Mughal Empire, the instrument began to take on its modern shape. The neck got wider. The bowl, which had been made of glued lathes of wood was now made of gourd, with metal frets and a bone nut on the neck. Masid Khan added two more strings to the sitar. The modern seven string sitar was created by Allauddin Khan. Sympathetic strings on sitar were first added by Ustad Imdad Khan. The earliest compositional style specifically for the sitar emerged in the mid-eighteenth century, attributed to Firoz Khan, who was either the son or nephew of Khusrau Khan." Hu741f4 (talk) 17:21, 28 May 2024 (UTC)