Lavezzoli, Peter (2006). The Dawn of Indian Music in the West. New York, NY: Continuum. p.65. ISBN 0-8264-2819-3.

Die dünnen Resonanzsaiten sind aus Silber-beschichtetem Stahl, ebenso die Spielsaiten Nr. 1 in Ma (F), die Pa-Saite (G) Nr. 5 und die beiden Chikari-Saiten in Sa (C) Nr. 6 und 7. Die 2. Saite in Sa (C) und die 3. in Pa (G) sind aus Bronze. Die 4. Saite ist ein tiefes Sa (C) wie beim Cello und aus massivem Messing.

Miscellaneous

Indian scholars claim it’s of Indian origins, but Western scholars believe it’s more likely to have originated from West Asia. A sitar can have between 18 and 21 strings, depending on the type of model. The 21-string version includes three sub-categories: drone, sympathetic, and played strings.

Finally, the Surbahar, also known as the bass sitar, comes with three to four drone strings, four playing strings, and 11 sympathetic strings. The Kharak Pancham, also known as the Ravi Shankar style, is a sitar with several playable strings and two extra bass strings.

Ravi Shankar Style

Lavezzoli, Peter (2006). The Dawn of Indian Music in the West. New York, NY: Continuum. p.158. ISBN 0-8264-2819-3. At present the sitar is the most popular instrument in Hindustani music. The structure and tonal quality of the modern sitar is a result of several years of hard work and devotion put in by artists and craftsmen. Craftsmen of Calcutta need special mention for their contribution to the making of a structurally perfect instrument. The basic technical and physical principles of the sitar are just like those of the veena, but the sitar is easier to handle and is more portable. For centuries, the sitar has undergone a sea of transformation, and has improved beyond recognition. The twentieth century can be called the golden era of the sitar. Stalwarts like Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, Nikhil Banerjee, Uma Shankar Misra, Abdul Haleem Jaffar Khan, Rais Khan and many others have carved a special niche for the instrument in the world of music. More than three hypotheses are prevalent among the musicologists regarding the origin of the sitar. Since none of these has been unanimously accepted, there has been a lot of confusion regarding its origin. Actually the subject needs thorough research, and before reaching any conclusion, all the points should be taken into consideration. The problem began when some people started giving credit of the sitar's 'invention' to the thirteenth century poet, Ameer Khusarau, of Allauddin Khilji's court. B.C. Deva says in one of his essays on organology, 'The problem is "acute" especially in the case of the sitar. No other lute has raised so much discussion with so little foundation. Perhaps the legend that the instrument was "invented" by Ameer Khusarau, was started by Captain Willard and Karam Imam. But recent studies have more than certainly established that Ameer Khusarau was not its "inventor". One wonders whether he was even aware of its existence?' It is a fact that Ameer Khusarau has not mentioned the name of sitar as a musical instrument in any of his works. Scholars and researchers unanimously support this point, but still this 'story' is so deep-rooted among the common folk that they would not believe otherwise. Some scholars who do not agree with the Khusarau hypothesis have tried to link it with the tritantriveena, which was called jantra by the common people, and was popular among the musicians of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Tritantri means an instrument which has three strings (a variety of veena with three strings as described by Sharangadeva). Sehtar, in Persian also means an instrument with three strings (Seh = three and tar = strings). Prof. Lal Mani Misra proposes that when the Muslims came to India, they saw the tritantri veena and found it hard to pronounce tri. Thus they gave it a Persian name, sehtar, which gradually became sitar.

Das Preis-Leistungsverhältnis dieser Saiten ist sehr gut. Ich benütze sie schon seit Jahren für meine Sitar. Sie sind abgestimmt auf Sitars in Ravi-Shankar-Stimmung mit einer Mensur um 90 cm und können sowohl bei 11 als auch bei 13 Resonanzsaiten verwendet werden. Bei 13 Resos bleiben 2, bei 11 Resos bleiben 4 Reserve-Saiten der Stärke .009'' (0,22 mm) übrig, was sehr gut konzipiert ist, denn diese reißen am meisten.This further proves that, while anyone can play the sitar, not anyone can play it well. 7. The Sitar Was Popularized in Pop Music in the 1960s Early versions of the sitar only had three strings. In fact, the Persian word sehtar quite literally means “three-stringed.” Tuning depends on the sitarist's school or style, tradition and each artist's personal preference. The main playing string is almost invariably tuned a perfect fourth above the tonic, the second string being tuned to the tonic. The tonic in the Indian solfège system is referred to as ṣaḍja, ṣaḍaj, or the shortened form sa, or khaṛaj, a dialectal variant of ṣaḍaj, not as vād, and the perfect fifth to which one or more of the drones strings are tuned is referred to as pañcam, not samvād.

Each set has its own bridge. Drone and sympathetic strings can only be strummed. Playable strings can be fretted. Another, more minor hypothesis is that the sitar is derived from locally developed Indian instruments, such as the veena, prior to the arrival of Islam. Indian temple sculptures from the 9th and 10th centuries are known to feature sitar-like instruments. [13] However, according to Allyn Miner, the evidence for this theory is too weak for any conclusion. [14]Vedabala, Samidha (2021-06-14). Sitar Music: The Dynamics of Structure and its playing Techniques. Wizard Publisher. ISBN 978-93-91013-13-4. In the Indian solfège system, the tonic is called the Sa (short for ṣaḍja). In most styles, one played string is tuned to ‘Sa’, and the second is tuned to a perfect fourth above the tonic, ‘Pa’ in Indian and ‘Fa’ in the Western solfège system. Although still popular to this day, the sitar is believed to have been invented in the 13th century, over 700 years ago. The tuning and gauge of the strings, the setting of jawari and the shape of the frets are also different. Naturally, these two models are prepared keeping in mind the suitability for executing their respective styles, and, therefore, an artist who wants to buy a sitar has to give his or her specific preference as to which model of the sitar he/she requires. Often you will want to play the sitar but by the time you have fully tuned it the feeling and inspiration is gone. In these situations, my recommendation is to just tune the 1st two strings main strings – F & C and the chicari strings both to C. This should take less than a minute. 98% of your playing will be on these strings.