How To: A History Of The Sitar

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Transcript of This Video
The Sitar is an instrument whose origins go back hundreds of years. You find long necked lutes as early as about the 19th century in cave paintings and temple paintings in early India. But really the instrument as we know it now only goes back to about the 18th century. There are some misconceptions about it going back to the 13th century; but now pretty much scholars have agreed that it's an instrument whose origins are a blend of central Asian Persian influences and indigenous Indian influences. And the Sitar from about the 18th century was played mainly in court as a court instrument. Played for the patrons who were first kings and feudal lords. So it is quite a regal kind of instrument. You see some photographs from the 19th century of Sitar being played to accompany dance by dancing women or vocal music and gradually it became a solo instrument.