• An instrument developed from rudra veena since the 16th century;
• It is made up of a long hollow neck, steel or copper strings, and a gourd resonator;
• When playing one of the main strings with a metallic pick, its sympathetic wire strings underneath vibrate involuntarily to create resonance;
• The movable frets are curved, in order to produce characteristic glissandos and ornaments;
• Since the pop idol George Harrison (1943-2001) studied the sitar and put its sound into Beatles’ songs, the instrument had become central to the musical image of North India;
• Ravi Shankar (1920-2012), Harrison’s teacher, was the world-renowned sitar master who brought Indian music to the western world.

• A fretless plucked stringed instrument: its strings are plucked with a plectrum held in the right hand, while the fingernails of the left hand press the strings;
• In terms of the instrumental tradition of the North Indian classical music, sarod shares the same importance with sitar. The learning of both instruments are based on raga.

• A long-necked lute zither;
• It is a drone instrument that provides a background of uniform sound and maintains a pitch reference for musicians to stay in tune.

• A paired set of drums on which musicians can produce a variety of sounds with different fingers and hand strokes;
• The wooden drum (for the right hand) is in a higher pitch and tunable, while the metal one (for the left hand) has a deep and resonant tone;
• Traditionally as an accompaniment;
• Tabla players have moved into more prominent roles since the late 20th century. They either stood out as an independent soloist, or had equal solo time as other instrumental soloists;
• Zakir Hussain (1951-) is one of the tabla masters. His virtuoso performances of classical and fusion music have attracted large audiences in India and abroad since the 1990s.

• The only bowed instrument in Hindustani music;
• It is played upright like the cello;
• Performer usually sits cross-legged on the floor, use the right hand to hold and move the bow, while the fingernails of the left hand slide along the strings;
• As its sound resembles the human voice, it is traditionally used as an accompaniment to singing.

• A transverse, keyless bamboo flute;
• Musicians have to master difficult fingerings to execute the microtones and slides.

• A keyless, double-reed wind instrument;
• Once played in occasions like weddings and festivals, the instrument is now performed at stages of Hindustani music.

• Adapted from the organ that European missionaries imported during the British rule in India;
• A portable reed organ with its bellows pumped by the left hand, and the monophonic melody played on the keyboard by the right hand. Performers can also sing with self-accompaniment on the instrument;
• Harmonium has been controversial for its fixed tuning which is unfit to the “movable dol system” of Indian music. However, it is already a very popular accompaniment of all kinds of vocal music, especially the religious, classical and light classical music.

• A type of folk song and dance from the villages and cities of Punjab;
• A number of 5 to 11 men dancing together in either a circle or straight lines;
• Dancers gather to celebrate annual festivals, weddings, birthdays and other parties;
• The dance is lively and joyful, with movements of jumping, knee bending, kicking, and forming human pyramid and other patterns;
• Dancers wear bright-coloured costumes with a long cloth tied around the waists, knee-length shirts and vests. They also wear turbans with a fold of cloth standing up in the front like a peacock’s tail;
• Bhangra is usually accompanied by dhol with two drum sticks;
• Merged with popular music such as reggae and hip-hop since the 1980s, modern bhangra has become very popular among South Asian immigrant communities in the UK, the USA and Canada, and has attracted world audiences of non-Indian background.

• Dhol is a barrel drum with goatskin heads;
• With a strap hanging around the player’s neck, the instrument is played with two drum sticks;
• Punjabi folk songs are always associated with dhol. The lyrics are usually in the theme of love, family, patriotism, or current social issues.

• Groups of hereditary musicians living in the desert region of western Rajasthan;
• Manganiyars are Muslim musicians who also perform religious music in Hindu temples and celebrate Hindu festivals;
• In the past, Manganiyars were musicians of the Rajput courts, accompanying their chiefs to war fields and providing them with entertainment before and after the battles;
• Women and children dance along with the music sung and played by the men;
• The instrumentation includes:
  • dholak (a double-headed drum played by hands)
  • kamaicha (a bowed, unfretted lute)
  • khartal (a pair of wooden clappers)
  • harmonium.

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Kamaicha

• Kalbelia, commonly known as “snake charmer”, belongs to the nomadic gypsy tribe living in desserts of Rajasthan;
• Once professional snake handlers and snake venom traders, they celebrate joyful moments with female dancers;
• Nowadays, performance by Kalbelia is a major tourist attraction in Rajasthan: snake charmers play the poongi (a single-reed wind pipe) to lure snakes;
• In 2010, Kalbelia folk songs and dances were inscribed onto the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

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