kachva sitar (Flat-cut gourd sitar)

~ String instrument

Description

Flat-cut gourd sitar with 16 frets, 2 steel & 3 brass strings. In the 1820s it was used by Ghulam Mohammed to develop the surbahar.

Mistakenly re-named "Kachapi vina" in the 19th century by Tagore, that instrument was actually an ancient unrelated short-necked pear-shaped lute.