Made in Boparai Kalan

The Horniman Museum identifies its small sarangi, object 2006.474.1, as made at Guru Nanak Music Works in Boparai Kalan, Ludhiana district. Its body, neck, pegbox and finial were carved from one block of champ wood, with shisham used for components including the bridge. A goatskin soundtable covers the body cavity, reinforced beneath the bridge. The string-holder and pressure plate are faced with sunmica. Three gut playing strings and thirteen wire sympathetic strings give this object its particular arrangement. The museum describes one playing string carrying melody and the others acting as drones. Its commentary places the instrument upright on a strap for standing performance: the bow is held underhand and the left-hand nails stop the strings. These details connect an identifiable Punjab workshop with materials, stringing and the player’s bodily actions. They also explain why a catalogue of this small instrument can be more informative than treating sarangi as a single standard shape.[1]

A player among other performers

Michael Nijhawan’s 2003 ethnography places sarangi with two dhadd players in a dhadi group, while allowing variation in its formation. His opening encounter follows musician Ajaib Singh tuning and demonstrating sarangi before suggesting a visit to the Khalsa College where he taught. This is a view of knowledge moving between home, practice and students. The instrument’s role emerges through relationships with drum players, narrative delivery and teaching, rather than solely through a list of strings or a celebrated soloist.[2]

Variation within the family

Joep Bor’s study distinguishes a broad sarangi family from narrower instrument groups. He stresses variation in size, sympathetic strings and playing technique, even within a recognised type. Body, neck and pegbox shapes matter to his classification. That descriptive approach helps keep the Ludhiana-made example in perspective: its three playing strings are a documented arrangement within a varied family.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Horniman Museum and Gardens. Chhoti sarangi, object 2006.474.1 ↗primary museum object catalogue · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Object 2006.474.1 description, maker sentence and first Commentary paragraph; excluded later Nayyar quotation. Accessed 2026-11-01.Actual object description and first playing-commentary paragraph read. The Ludhiana maker attribution and this object’s construction are used; the later garbled quotation from a separate Nayyar encyclopedia contribution is excluded.Return to Made in Boparai Kalan, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Michael Nijhawan; International Journal of Punjab Studies 10(1&2). Shared Melodies, Partitioned Repertoires? An Ethnography of Sikh and Sufi Dhadi Performance in Contemporary Punjab ↗scholarly ethnography · Source date: 2003 · Locator: Printed pp.47–49 / PDF pp.50–52: Ajaib Singh encounter, Khalsa College teaching, dhadi ensemble and flexibility. Accessed 2026-11-01.Actual journal cover, contents and article passages read from the scanned issue through OCR. The ensemble account is dated to this fieldwork; seventeenth-century passages quoted through Bor and broad contemporary decline claims are not adopted.Return to A player among other performers, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Joep Bor; National Centre for the Performing Arts Quarterly Journal XV(3–4), XVI(1). The Voice of the Sarangi: An illustrated history of bowing in India ↗scholarly organological study · Source date: 1986–1987 · Locator: PDF pp.13–15 / printed pp.11–13: variation, classification and broad/narrow sarangi terminology. Accessed 2026-11-01.Actual title, publication data, contents and relevant morphology pages of the 190-page scan read through OCR. Descriptive distinctions are attributed; speculative ancestry and hierarchical cultural labels are excluded.Return to Variation within the family, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-CUL-0060 · English edition · human review not performed