Page:The Music of India.djvu/130

 vIna it has a belly made of jack or some other resonant wood, but there is no curved neck and no gourd. The body of the instrument is about two feet long, and carries the finger-board, which is about three inches wide. The bowl is from eight inches to one foot in width. The bridge is placed on the bowl, but is not double as in the Vina. The strings pass over this, and then over another ledge beyond the frets, and again through holes in a ledge near the pegs. These ledges are usually made of ivory. All the strings are over the finger-board. The tuning-pegs are placed, four on the face of the instrument at the end and three at the side, at varying distances from the end. The number of strings is usually seven. The frets are curved and are made of metal, usually brass, and they are fixed by means of wire strings tied round the body of the instrument. They are movable at the will of the player. It is therefore easy to alter the tune of the sitar or the size of any particular intervals. The frets vary from sixteen to eighteen in number for about an octave and a half on each string. The Carnatic sitar is somewhat different. It has a much thinner and shorter neck and is shaped something like a tambur. Only the first two strings pass over frets, which are about half an inch wade and raised from the finger-board. These two strings are placed much nearer together than the other strings. The fourth and fifth strings go round a small ivory bead about half-way up the finger-board, whence they pass obliquely under the strings to the tuning-pegs. The sixth and seventh strings pass straight up the finger-board in the usual way. All the strings except the seventh, which is of brass, are of steel. The frets are of wood with an upper edge of metal and are fixed to the finger-board. Usually there are about fourteen frets, which are placed at the intervals of the diatonic scale.

In the ordinary sitar the strings are made of steel and brass. The first, third, fifth, sixth and seventh are of steel and the other two of brass. Many sitars have a number of sympathetic strings placed beneath the other strings, which are never played, but give a continual hum as the other strings are played.