Evolution of musical instruments - Sarangi

Sarangi, which is also known as sau-rangi ie, an instrument capable of producing one hundred different tonal colours (timbre), is one of the oldest and most sought after musical instrument, especially by classical vocalists.
Its present shape is the highly developed form of an old instrument known as chikara, which remained in popular vogue in South Asia for long and which is still used in the remote villages of Sindh and Punjab. Unlike a Sarangi, chikara does not have resonating sympathetic strings (tarabs) placed beneath its main playing strings.
The perfect musical instrument manufactured by nature is the human voice, which is produced by his vocal cords. It is capable of producing the subtlest and the most intricate shades of musical sound. Sarangi is perhaps the only man-made instrument, which comes close to human vocals in the matter of producing musical sounds.
A master musician can coax all kinds of sounds from this instrument. It is sometimes called the violin of the East, but this comparison falls short of a true illustration by similitude, as it cannot do justice to the full range of Sarangi. As opposed to violin, whose timbre is not enriched by the resonating tarabs, Sarangi is capable of reproducing all shades and tonal colours, which no other musical instrument can.
Like rubab and sarod, Sarangi is also carved out from a single wooden block two feet and a half long on which a total of 40 are mounted. Of these the three main strings used as baaj, are made of stout gut.
At its base, a Sarangi is usually eight-inch wide and looks like a rectangular cup upon which animal skin is mounted. It becomes narrower as it moves upward and at the top end, the width is reduced to four inches. The bow, a wooden stick strung with long horse hair (treated with raisin to produce cohesiveness) runs on the three gut strings for the production of different musical sounds.
Underneath these three gut strings, 35 or 40 properly tuned brass strings are fixed lengthwise, which resonate sympathetically when musical notes are produced by the running of the bow on the baaj strings. The musical sounds thus produced are manipulated by the player with the pressure of fingernails of his left hand on a single side string.
The musician places the Sarangi on his lap, who sits on the floor in a cross-legged fashion and plays with the four fingers of his left hand, while running the bow on the baaj strings with his right hand. It is an extremely intricate musical instrument, which damages the fingers of the musician, as their tips become numb as a result of vigorous practice.
Instruments, which are played with spectrums, do not produce continued musical sounds. With the stroke, vibrations are produced, which do not last longer than a few seconds do. On the other hand, musical instruments played with the help of bows can produce musical sounds for as long a period as one desires.
A Sarangi, therefore, is best suited to produce such musical sounds that are continuos and there is no break in its vibrations.
Lahore and Kasur have had the distinction of grooming a large number of competent Sarangi players of sub-continental repute. Included among them were Ghulam Muhammad Kasuri, Chhotey Kaley Khan, Bulley khan and his son Barkat Ali, Haider Bakhsh Faloosa, Nazim Husain Khan, Sharafuddin Khan and many more of lesser calibre.
After partition of the sub-continent Ustad Nabi Bakhsh Khan arrived to settle in Lahore. Ustad Bundoo Khan, who was reported to have mixed baajs of other instruments with his Sarangi, also lived in Lahore before making Karachi his abode. For long Sarangi was used in film orchestras in Pakistan. However, its place was taken over by violin and electronic musical devices.
Currently, we hardly find a competent sarangi player in Pakistan and this centuries-old musical instrument is facing extinction from our musical ethos. Scions of professional gharana musicians do not opt for learning the art of sarangi playing as it requires long years of hard practice to master this delicate musical device.