Santoor

'Santoor' is originally from Kashmir and is also called a 'Shat-tantri Veena' (meaning 100 stringed Veena). This instrument was used in "Sufiana Mousiki". When Sufi saints used to sing, Santoor accompanied them and later it also became popular as a solo instrument. In early fifties, this instrument was used to accompany sufi saints from Kashmir and this instrument has resemblance in many other instruments like Cymbala (Kazakistan), Cymbalam, Yangchin (China) etc.

Santoor is an open-string instrument. The original santoor had 100 strings (thus the name 'Santoor') and had 25 bridges. Pt. Shivkunar Sharma, the greatest exponent of Santoor has made several changes to this open-stringed instrument. In order to refine it, Pt. Shivkumaraji added few strings and reduced no. of strings per bridge to 3 and increased no. of bridges to 29. Thus each playing string is a group of three strings, so that one can have a stay on a note ("Thehrav") for "Aalapi". The instrument is played with a delicate stroke of light hammer called 'Kalam'. Though not considered to be suitable for Hindustani classical music due to its inability to move between notes, Pt. Shivkumar Sharma has made it possible to create an interpreatation of Raga on this instrument with these above mentioned changes.

A renowned santoor player, Pt. Bhajan Sopori has further made a change in Santoor so as to have 'meend' (a slide upwords or downwords between the notes) or glissando on Santoor.

Today also, Santoor of 100 strings is played in Kashmir and this instrument was originally used in accompaniment of Sufi Saints. This Sufiana Mousiki is a beautiful blend of Persian and Hindustani Music. We find 'Mukam' (a very similar term to 'Raag' of Hindustani Music) in Sufiana Mousiki and some recordings of Mohammad Abdullah Khidbat Bakal are available where one can understand the beautiful blend of Persian and Hindustani Music.