Sarangi Premium

The sarangi premium is a high quality instrument for professional demands. Its fine workmanship, love of detail and its balanced, full sound are convincing. Thanks to the still relatively low price, it is also a good choice for a quality-conscious beginner and also an alternative to a possibly existing sarangi with tonal or functional faults.

EU: 869 € (incl. bow)
incl. VAT, plus 19.10 € shipping within Germany / 31.10 € within Europe
Non-EU: 730,25 € (incl. bow)
plus 31.10 € shipping within Europe / overseas on request

Sound sample of a sarangi

Features

Body one piece solid stained toon wood, mat shellac surfaces, sound box covered with goat skin, synthetic bridges, four mains pegs, three main gut strings, 35 sympathetic pegs with steel strings, inlay work made of engraved celluloid, including bow and tuning device narka.

General Info

Construction
The sarangi has a one-piece wooden sound box, the lower section of which is covered with goat skin, functioning as a resonator. On this rawhide cover a horn bridge is placed, carrying three thick gut strings on which the melody is played. However, there is no finger-board or frets but the strings are pressed sideways with the nail beds of index, middle and ring finger of the left hand. The strings are set vibrating by means of a relatively short, sturdy bow. Beside the melody strings the sarangi is equipped with about 35 steel sympathetic strings, giving a very distinctive reverberation to this instrument. Usually 24 sympathetic pegs are attached to the side of the body in three rows. The remaining 11 sympathetic pegs are attached to the top end of the peg box. The three gut strings are played with a relatively short thick bow.

History
The sharp, slightly nasal sound of the sarangi is one of the most impressive and unusual tonal colours brought forth by Indian Music. For a long time the sarangi was nearly exclusively used as a subordinate instrument, accompanying singing and dancing. Only in the 20th century did it become established as a classical solo instrument. Despite its tremendously increased status, the sarangi is threatened today with extinction. As an accompanying instrument it has nearly entirely been ousted by the harmonium. The harmonium can not articulate sliding sounds but it is so much easier to play than the sarangi. For this reason there are rarely any families left who play traditional sarangi and very few sarangi players even from other circles can be found today.

Manufacturer / Supplier

PALOMA is the international brand name for instruments made by Haribhau Vishwanath from Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Haribhau Vishwanath was founded in 1925 as a small repair business and developed into one of the leading Indian harmonium manufacturers in the course of decades. In addition, Haribhau Vishwanath makes shrutiboxes, santoors, swarmandals and some drums. Haribhau Vishwanath is also an active musical instrument trader and supplies us with some rarely demanded instruments where a direct purchase from the manufacturer is not profitable. Thanks to his good infrastructure and long experience with instrument manufacturing, trading and international shipping, Haribhau currently supplies all common harmonium models and many other instruments constantly in a high quality regarding workmanship. In addition, he excels through attractive innovations, like e.g. the harmonium Compactina or a particular silk-mat finish. Haribhau Vishwanath is a partner of India Instruments since 2005. Today the company is run by Ashish Diwane.

Tuning

Sarangis 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 (all gut):
1. Sa - c (main playing string)
2. low Pa - G
3. low Sa - C

Sympathetic strings left (all steel 0.30 mm) - top row of pegs:
1. Sa - c
2. Re - d
3. Ga - e
4. Ma - f
5. Pa - g
6. Dha - a
7. Ni - b
8. high Sa - c'
9. high Re - d'

Sympathetic strings right (all steel 0.30 mm) - middle and low rows of pegs:
1. low Pa - G
2. low Dha - A
3. low Ni - B
4. Sa - c
5. Re - d
6. komal Ga - e flat
7. shuddha Ga - e
8. shuddha Ma - f
9. tivra Ma - f sharp
10. Pa - g
11. Dha - a
12. Ni - b
13. high Sa - c'
14. high Re - d'
15. high Ga - e'

Upper sympathetic strings on left and right small bridges (all steel 0.30mm):
The tuning of these strings is handled freely, depending on individual preferences and notes to be stressed in the chosen raga. The tonal range is limited between Sa and Pa, because all strings have the same length and diameter.

The following graph by Brian Godden shows an alternative tuning. The string gauges therein are stated in Anglo-Saxon inches. The use of a 4th playing string as chikari is particularly noteworthy.

Sarangi Tuning

Size

Measure: length 68 cm, width 22 cm, depth 16 cm, weight: 2.6 kg, weight with case: 6.5 kg
Each instrument is individually hand-crafted and might differ from our description.