Dilruba N. Mondal

Dark stained toon wood, polished shellac surfaces, sound box covered with goat skin, horn or bone bridges, frets made of nickel silver, peg head with cogwheel mechanism for six melody strings and pegs for five sympathetic strings, 15 sympathetic pegs on screwed sidebar, string holder made of metal, inlay work made of engraved celluloid, back side of sound box with carved decoration.

The included simple bow meets Indian quality standards but it cannot be compared with high quality classical Western bows. Among other things, the adjustability of the frog is relatively small, so that the bow can be drawn only relatively slack. The tensioning device shall therefore be turned only carefully and without force. Attempts to draw the bow further by applying force, may lead to damaging the tensioning device.

Construction
The dilruba is very similar to the esraj in design and the manner in which it is played. However, it has a somewhat bigger, square resonating corpus, is generally built a little bigger and has 20 instead of 15 sympathetic strings. Its sound is therefore clearly more powerful than that of an esraj.

History
The dilruba was probably created during the Mogul era in Northeast India. It is possibly an advancement of the older taus. A more compact, lighter resonating body might have substituted the taus's heavy peacock-shaped corpus. During the 20th century, the dilruba became a little popular in Afghan music. It was and still is used, particularly by Sikh musicians, to accompany semi-classic and religious singing.

In the historic city centre of Calcutta, near Lal Bazar, several traditional instrument businesses can be found. One of them is N. MONDAL. India Instruments occasionally buys esrajs and dilrubas there. The quality of workmanship is rather simple, however, as an inexpensive alternative to the fine pieces of Monoj Kumar Sardar these instruments are definitely interesting for beginners.

Dilrubas are barely standardized they exist in a range of different sizes and types of stringing. The following information refers to the esrajs offered by India Instruments. The tonic sa is tuned to c the below mentioned Western tone designations refer to that. As with sitars, the tonic may be freely chosen between c and d.

Playing strings:
1. low ma - f - steel 0.40 mm
2. & 3. low Sa - c - bronze 0.40 mm
4. very low Pa - G - bronze 0.55 mm
5. low Pa - g - steel 0.30 mm
6. Sa - c' - steel 0.27 mm

Side sympathetic strings (all steel 0.22 mm):
1. low ma - f
2. low Pa - g
3. low Dha - a
4. low Ni - b
5. Sa - c'
6. Re - d'
7. Ga - e'
8. ma - f'
9. & 10. Pa - g'
11. Dha - a'
12. Ni - b'
13. high Sa - c''
14. high Re - d''
15. high Ga - e''

The double tuning of string 9 and 10 can be used alternatively for another note of importance in the chosen raga.

Long sympathetic strings (all steel 0.22 mm):
1. low ma - f
2. low Pa - g
3. low Dha - a
4. low Ni - b
5. Sa - c'

The following graph by Brian Godden shows an alternative tuning. The string gauges therein are stated in Anglo-Saxon inches. The 3rd and 5th playing strings are missing there.

Measure: length 98 cm, width 21 cm, depth 15 cm, weight: approx. 2.5 kg
Each instrument is individually hand-crafted and might differ from our description.