Dilruba

by David Courtney

NAVIGATION 1) Overview (This page) 2) Stringing & Tuning – Section 1 – Introduction (start here)      Section 2 – Basic concepts      Section 3 – Overview of strings      Section 4 – Dilruba/ Esraj Strings      Section 5 – Tools      Section 6 – Stringing the base      Section 7 – Stringing the tuning pegs      Section 8 – Tightening the strings      Quick Guide           a) Very small           b) Small           c) Large           d) Very large 3) Bridge Mod 4) F.A.Q.s on the Dilruba/Esraj

Dilruba is a cross bet­ween the sitar and sarangi.  It is ext­remely close to the esraj and the mayuri vina.  It so close that most peo­ple are un­able to tell them apart.  The difference is to be found in the shape of the resonators and the man­ner in which the sympathetic strings attach.  Still they are so si­mi­lar that a dilruba player has no trouble play­ing an esraj or a mayuri vina and vice versa.

The construction is very inter­est­ing.  The neck has approximately 18 strings.  The approach to tuning is somewhat si­mi­lar to the sitar.  Like the sitar, al­most all of the play­ing is performed upon only one string.  There are a num­ber of metallic frets.  It has a series of sympathetic strings which are tuned to the notes of the rag.

The dilruba is pop­ular in north-west India.  It is found in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

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Technique

The technique is also a cross bet­ween the sarangi and the sitar.  It is bowed with a bow (known as gaz), whose hair is coated with rosin, in a man­ner very much like the sarangi.  It is bowed with the right hand while the left hand fingers the strings.

There seem to be two schools con­cerning the fingering of the dilruba.  One ap­proach shows a strong influence of the sitar.  For this ap­proach, there is a strong preference given to using the index finger.  Like the sitar, one oc­casion­ally invokes the mid­dle finger to gain speed.  This ap­proach seems to be slightly more com­mon in North Eastern India.  The other school of seems to show a distinct preference to the use of the mid­dle finger coup­led with the index finger.  This ap­proach seems to have the advantage that if one requires speed, one can oc­casion­ally use either the index or the ring finger to go in either direction.  It is inter­est­ing to note though that the proponents of the this school seem to be less disposed to invoke such shortcuts to their technique.

In either case, one does not solidly lock the string ag­ainst the fret as one would do with the sitar or most other fretted stringed in­stru­ments.  One only has to lightly touch the fret ag­ainst the string.  This allows one to alter the intonation with ease.  One has no problem raising or lowering the pitch at the fret sim­ply by where on the fret you wish to place the finger.  In short, we can think of the frets of the dilruba as be­ing mere guides for cor­rect finger placement.

The layout of the strings of the dilruba is very si­mi­lar to the sitar.  This is shown in the illustration below.  How­ever unlike the sitar, there is no need to move the frets whenever one is play­ing a note that does not have a fret (e.g., Komal Re or Komal Dha in the mid­dle register.)  When one needs to play these notes, one merely has to place the finger in the appropriate point midway bet­ween the frets.

The meend is also pro­du­ced in a fash­ion very dif­fer­ently from the sitar.  For the dilruba, one need only slide the fingers up and down along the string in order to produce a meend or any other ornament, where on the sitar one pulls the string laterally across the fret.

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Photo Gallery

Click on image

Dilruba

Dilruba back

Top tuning keys

Jivari

Tarafs

Taraf strings

Bridge

String attachments

Back decoration

Back of neck

Tip of bow

Frog of bow

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Selected Video

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NAVIGATION 1) Overview (This page) 2) Stringing & Tuning – Section 1 – Introduction (start here)      Section 2 – Basic concepts      Section 3 – Overview of strings      Section 4 – Dilruba/ Esraj Strings      Section 5 – Tools      Section 6 – Stringing the base      Section 7 – Stringing the tuning pegs      Section 8 – Tightening the strings      Quick Guide           a) Very small           b) Small           c) Large           d) Very large 3) Bridge Mod 4) F.A.Q.s on the Dilruba/Esraj