Pumpkin Turned Sitar: The 200 Year Old Heritage Of The Instrument Makers Of Miraj
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The high realm of classical music is grounded in down-to-earth materiality; it arises from the earthly reality of labour. The music that touches the sky is rooted in everyday life's simple rhythms and materials. Materials as simple as a pumpkin gourd are transformed into a hollowed-out vessel for music.
Indian musical instruments are remarkable for their beauty and variety of their form. As seen in many of the cave paintings at Ajanta or miniature paintings such as Ragamala paintings, they remain essentially unchanged in the last 2000 years.
Miraj, located in the Sangli district in the southern part of Maharashtra bordering Karnataka, has been the epicentre of thriving musical tradition for 150 years. Many of India’s top musicians, bands, and orchestras have got their instruments made or specially designed by the sitar makers of Miraj.
Besides, the Sitarmakers of Miraj have been crafting musical instruments out of pumpkins for almost 200 years. Especially the Tanpura, a drone instrument that is a vital component of any given Hindustani Classical or Carnatic music performance as it provides the background tonal ambience to a vocalist or an instrumentalist giving the touch of completion to the lead artists’ musical renditions.
Many aspects of the craft of instrument making are intangible knowledge similar to what an artist learns through years of hands-on experience and sharing nuances with generations of family members. The instruments are made entirely by hand and involve little or no power tools or mass production. The workshops are small, and everyone works near each other, constantly exchanging information between themselves and overseeing each other’s work.
The Kaddu (gourd) used for making the Sitar and Tanpura belongs to the pumpkin family, primarily grown for this purpose and is not edible. They usually weigh 40-50 kg when harvested.
They say a false note can ruin the whole evening. Rightly so, the journey of an Indian musical instrument from basic earthly materials is as intricate and arduous as the preparation and training an Indian Classical musician goes through.
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