The History of the Sitar

[@bharatisoundattikar1798]

Sitar should be given the title of the national classical musical instrument of India. It makes you feel so happy.

[@AntarblueGarneau]

I knew Allyn Miner. I met her at the Ali Akbar College of music in San Rafael, California i early 1980s. I also ran into her at the Hiren Roy shop in Kolkata in 1999. I am a disciple of Ud Ali Akbar KS. Before that I was a student of Pt Nikhil Banerjee in California and Jodhpur Park, Kolkata 1971 to 1984. I knew him well and used to visit him and hangout with him in green rooms at his concerts. I have also enjoyed the playing of Ud Vilayat KS, Imrat KS, Buddhaditya Mukherjee and Shahid Parvez. I did many concerts in India in 1990s: Pune, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. I also concertized in Kolkata in 1980.

[@thesitarproject6495]

Wow, that's amazing!!

[@samusic5255]

Sitar is evolved from Veena and Setar.

[@paulriggall8370]

Thank you for putting this together, a really enjoyable watch. I start most days with either Ravi Shankar or Pandit Banerjee. I’m slowly learning more about it and I would love to one day have a go on a Sitar. I’ve never even seen one in real life, yet I have loved the buzz since I was a teenager several decades ago.

[@drawxward]

Fascinating!

[@argmined]

As someone who bought the Amir Khusro story, this was such an important clarification and much more. Thanks a lot for an information-packed and well-researched video.

[@melodyst.claire5389]

Thank you for your history lesson always wondered I been playing Sitar for a wail and it's an incredible experience indeed 🙌 ❤ spiritual instrument and then the Gurudev came to visit ❤amazing life indeed Amazing culture to experience 👏 ❤🙏💐♥️

[@tusharbhosle5937]

Phenomenal

[@yumeko1993]

Cool, interesting stuff

[@ppalakurthi]

Thank you. This was a superb introduction.

[@urvikulkarni827]

very informative video!

[@drx.rahulmalpani5825]

Great info brother 👍❤

[@andrewrai5752]

I wouldn't say the Vilayat Khan sitar is the "most popular" You'd have to do a actual count of how many sitars of each style are made to come to that conclusion. I'd say they are equally popular.

[@sahajwilliams4575]

Thanks for sharing!!

[@mikeblack8596]

What a fantastically insightful body of work. Great job ,well done Alec! 🙏

[@thesitarproject6495]

Thanks a lot Mike! I might get Sodhi to do one on the history of the tabla one day...

[@Prottay154]

Make a video about how to make a sitar body and also input the string on sitar

[@electronicshub-fg2pj]

Sitar is an Iranian modified instrument.

[@musiciansanjoy]

Excellent work❤. One kind information : the name 'sitar' is an amalgamation of two words - seh + tar. 'Seh' in farsi means 'three' and 'tar ' means string .So originally sitar was a three stringed instrument. Thank you.

[@HMohr]

He shares this exact information on the beginning of the video.

[@citrusblast4372]

I thought sitar was a pun name, cuz you sit on the floor while play sitar

[@siddheshkudale8600]

You need to learn a native language to research more. Simply saying "claims are unfounded" does not give you the easy leeway. "There is no sufficient evidence" - The Sitar was an evolutionary offspring of Mughal and Persian Influences on the Veena: Saraswati Veena and Rudra Veena are parents from which the Sitar evolved. Refer to the Bhatkhande Kramik Pustak Malika. "No contemporary text mentioning the sitar!" Do try not to speak on a topic if you cannot respect or even find research from deeper indigenous sources. This information is a very external/international (global-north) centric tone-deaf version of distorted Indian Classical Music History.

[@thesitarproject6495]

Well, as I openly admit at the start of this video, I am not an expert on this particular subject, but this is precisely why I invited Dr Samidha Vedabala to participate in this project, who as I explain is a professor at Sikkim University who specializes her entire academic research on the history of the sitar, has written many peer-reviewed texts on this topic, in both Hindi and English. She guided me through the writing of this script and I am therefore confident it is in line with the general Indian academic views on this topic.

[@kmhuque5485]

I will wait for your India-centric, tone-clear, well-founded views on this matter, based on well-founded claims - if I may borrow your words.

[@ppalakurthi]

Why are you so angry? Can’t you make your point (if you have one) with kindness? An exceptional amount of work has been done by the publisher of this video. I’m very grateful for its contents. Maybe you make one with what you believe to be more accurate details.

[@vv6533]

While I agree with your overall point I think our own scholars need to put forth a strong theory based on our indigenous evidence to counter these coming from Ivy leagues. You must fairly be aware of the fact that western indologists have ulterior motives and their own biases. But when presented with satisfactory evidence they have no choice but to accept it. They have done so in Indo-European studies and spurious theories have been debunked. The only thing I don't like is viewing a non Indian (Allyn Miner) as an "expert" or authority on the subject is insulting. You would not trust an Indian to be authority on the subject of roman or greek history which is understandable cuz you are not part of their culture or experienced and grown up in those cultures. Yet funnily enough it only happens with Indian studies somehow. The Japanese, Chinese or European studies are carried out by respective groups and only their discourse on the subject is considered credible. This needs to change and is slowly changing for the better. Though I would like the creator of this video to have interview less mainstream scholars who has other views on the subjects that is not parroting the ivy leagues narrative. There's still no conclusive evidence of Sitar's origin at the end of the day. So it's all speculation based on very little evidence.

[@Rahul-ru4bc]

Hey buddy! You can’t afford to not include ‘Ustad Irshaad khaan’, the son of Imrat khan and nephew of Vilayat khan sahab. It’s very wrong. He is among the torchbearers of the Imdadkhani gharana. The Grandson of Ianayat khan Saab, how can you exclude him.

[@quietpp]

Its a insidious attempt to islamize our hindu musical history by these pseudo intellectuals. Sitar comes from veena.

[@thesitarproject6495]

I can assure you I didn't attempt to islamize anything. I understand that there might be competing views on the origin of the sitar, but the way to reach a consensus is by calmly scrutinizing the data on which competing views are based, not by placing labels on those you disagree with.

[@srajan5286]

I believe it originated from veena​@@thesitarproject6495

[@GholamFareed]

@@thesitarproject6495 don't mind them they are just RSS Radicals who hate anything related to Islamic culture.

[@vedanti408]

Just like Amir khusro, Vilayat Khan is overly credited for many things. He adopted all the techniques of sitar from Mohammad khan . His music sounds very sad and dull. Contrast to his tone , Ravi Shankar sound more bright and colourful with much musical depth and purity. Vilayat Khan's style is very repetitive and very unnecessarily long.

[@miyakimalhar85]

Sad and dull? I doubt you have heard more than 5 ragas of Vilayat Khan.

[@vedanti408]

@@miyakimalhar85 well I am from imdadkhani gharana myself😂😂 so you should ask before you judge

[@miyakimalhar85]

That's even more paradoxical then. BTW, my guruji is from Maihar gharana, but I do acknowledge the greatness of both of them, and would never dare to call a legend "sad and dull" or "unnecessarily long". I am not worthy enough, I feel.

[@vedanti408]

@@miyakimalhar85 vilayat Khan's sitar is melodious but the sound is very dull and sorrowful. It's very blunt . Compared to panditjis bright and colour tone. Even nikhil Banerjee's sound is quite empty. You need to listen to vocal to understand what I am saying