West Rajasthan, India
Sarangiya Langa

Wood, metal strings, gut strings, hide, paint, bone
Mid 19th century
Length: 20 inches
Chordophones – Lutes

This sindhi sarangi is a short-necked bowed fiddle used by the ‘Langa’ caste musicians, known as ‘sarangiya langa’ of west Rajasthan.  It is used to accompany their songs.  This sindhi sarangi is handmade from a single block of tali or seesham wood in a rectangular slightly waisted body shape.  There are four main parts: the pegbox at the top, the unfretted neck, the body, and the string holder at the bottom.  The hollow body is covered with a painted goat skin.  This sarangi has four gut strings and 22 metal sympathetic string that feed through the circular bone bridges (sundari) on the face of the neck to the pegs that are inserted in the string holder box behind the neck.  All the strings are fastened to the tailpiece called the targahan.  The sarangi has the range of approximately 32 notes, the range of the human voice.  This sindhi sarangi is played while sitting and is held against the left shoulder in a vertical position.  The musician uses a bow held in an underhand grip in his right hand, while the fingernails of the left hand press against the strings to shorten the vibrating length of the string in order to produced various pitches.  The music of the sarangi is said to resemble the sound of the human voice, with the ability to imitate vocal ornaments.  Colorful painting adorns this sindhi sarangi.

Please check out AMIS: https://www.amis.org/post/the-sarangi-a-case-study-in-colonialist-text. by Jayme Kurland for further discussion.

Resource: ‘Sarangi,’ Joep Bor, Neil Sorrell/Nicolas Magriel, Mirelle Helffer, “The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments,” 2nd ed., Vol. 4, Laurence Libin, Editor in Chief. Oxford University Press.