In these tunings C is the khuruj or keynote, the melody string being máhdyamâ or F. Sitárs have usually seventeen to eighteen frets. The five methods of arranging them, so as to produce different modes, styled Thât, are as follows:—
Intervals upon the F
or melody string.
The word "Thât," employed to signify scale or mode, should not be confounded with "Râga," the foundation of all Indian music. Râga has no equivalent in European musical language, but may be described as a melody type founded upon the intervals of a mode, and having a succession of notes so arranged as to excite a certain feeling of the mind. There may be many melodies in the same râga, differing distinctly from each other. Methods for the Sitár have been written in Bengâli by the Rájah Sir S.M. Tagore, a well-known amateur, and in Mahrátti by a Brahmin musician of Poona, Anna Ghárpure, a fine performer now in the service of H.H. the Thâkore Sahib of Wadhwân. Besides the Rájah Rám Pál Singh, I had an opportunity of hearing a player from Jeypur, at an exhibition called "India in London," in 1886. The technique and charm of his performance are not easily forgotten. The resonance body of an ordinary Sitár is a gourd, but he had one with two gourds, known as the "Been," or Vína Sitár.
The Sitár in the centre, with fiddle-shaped body, is the Súrsanga, or Esrar without sympathetic strings, a bowed instrument combining the Sitár with the Sárungí. It is a modern instrument, and is intended to accompany women's voices. It has four strings, tuned, upon the authority of the Rájah Sir S.M. Tagore, as given by Mr. Victor Mahillon in his admirable Catalogue of the Museum of the Brussels Conservatoire, [[audio/mpeg]] .
The third instrument, upon the right, attached to two gourds, is the Mahati or great Vína—known now as the "Been." It is the most ancient and finest Indian instrument, and is also the most difficult to play. It is composed of a bamboo resting upon two gourds, and has seven strings—two at the side nearest the F or melody string, four over the frets, and one at the side away from the melody string. The tuning, the pitch varying with the size of the instrument, is as follows:— [[audio/mpeg]] . The string × is tuned E or A as required in the "râga" played. In the drawing five strings have been shown over the frets; the string, however, from the peg above and nearest to the nut, should pass over a small ivory head, not shown, but placed on the side of the bamboo, between the second and third frets, to the small bridge shown at the farthest end of the instrument at the side, and not over the main bridge. The frets, twenty-two in number, are at semitonic intervals, and fixed. The instrument is played with two plectra upon the first two fingers of the player's right hand; the two side strings are struck by the nail of the little finger moved upwards; the single side string, upon the other side, is struck by the little finger of the left hand when required. The instrument is held with the gourd nearest the nut resting upon the left shoulder, while the right gourd rests beneath the right arm. It should be noted that the disposition of strings is, in Vínas, reversed from that of Sitárs. There is a peculiarly soft and plaintive quality of tone in the Vína that is altogether wanting in the Sitár.
There are two systems of music in vogue in India at the present day—the Karnâtik or southern system, and the Hindustâni or northern. The latter is chiefly in the hands of Mahomedan professors, who have borrowed from the Arabian and Persian systems. The Karnâtik is more melodious, and possesses fewer traces of foreign innovation. Instruments used by Karnâtik professors employ only the intervals of the tonic fourth and fifth (or their octaves) upon the open strings. Hence we find the southern Indian Vína—an instrument with only one resonance gourd, and a wooden body like a lute—tuned to the following intervals:—
[[audio/mpeg]] or [[audio/mpeg]]
the first method being known as "Pánchamâ s'ruti," the latter as "Máhdyamâ s'ruti," from the relative intervals between the strings.