Sitar in beautiful case, made entirely by hand in Pakistan.

A sitar is a stringed instrument from Northern India with a very typical sound. In addition to four melody strings and three rhythm strings (chikari), the instrument also has eleven to fourteen resonance strings (tarafs). The resonance strings are tuned in the scale of the respective raga. The sitar traditionally comes from the Hindustani music of Northern India and probably originated from 2 instruments: the Persian Seh-tar and the North Indian Rudra Veena. The typical sound is caused by the broad, slightly convex cut bridges of ivory or camel bone. As a result, both the main and resonance strings run against the bridge, causing the overtone spectrum. The instrument became known in the West in the 1960s through the many performances by Ravi Shankar, such as during the well-known Bangladesh concert in America. In addition, The Beatles and other pop groups used the instrument a number of times in their songs. The most famous sitar player in the west was Ravi Shankar. He played at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, among other things. This made music from India in general and sitar music in particular known to the general public. Ravi Shankar passed away on December 11, 2012. To this day, many western countries regularly host sitar concerts and teach Indian music.