A South Asian term principally denoting drone chordophones. Ektār (‘monochord’) most commonly denotes a drone lute, generally a spike lute. In general these instruments have a single string, but sometimes two, and they are often over 100 cm long. A round gourd with a hole cut out of the top and a skin glued or nailed over it is pierced by a long wood or bamboo neck. A steel string, attached to the lower, projecting end of the neck, passes up over a narrow bridge of arched wood or bone (the deep bridge of the tambūrā is not common here), and is secured at the top to a wooden peg, usually inserted from below. The ektār is held either vertically or over the player’s shoulder, to accompany his own singing, providing both a drone and a rhythmic accompaniment, the string being plucked by the index finger. The players are usually mendicant religious singers, either Hindu sādhus or Muslim fakīrs. Tār (‘metal string’) derives from Persian and the instrument and the use of drones may derive from urban music (see Tambūrā). The yaktāro of Sind, some tuila of Orissa and the rāmsāgar of Gujarat are similar instruments.
The ektārā of southern Bihar has a bamboo stick fingerboard about 86 cm long and 2·5 cm thick. The stick passes through one side of a bowl-shaped bottle gourd, roughly 15 cm by 21 cm, and projects a few inches out of the opposite side. A piece of goat- or lizardskin (scaly side out) is attached with metal tacks or with wooden pegs and string over a mouth about 11 cm in diameter cut in the face of the gourd. One or two brass playing strings pass over a wooden bridge and are secured at the gourd’s lower end to a peg or to the bamboo stick’s projection. At the upper end, the strings are fastened to pegs about 55 cm from the bridge. The upper end of the bamboo fingerboard may be wrapped with coloured paper, string or ribbons and topped with coloured streamers or peacock feathers. The ektārāplayer holds his instrument upright, gripping the neck just above the resonator and plucking the playing string or strings with the index finger of the same hand. If he is dancing, he supports the gourd resonator with his other hand, in which he carries clusters of small bells which sound as he beats his hand against the gourd. The ektārā is generally played by men as a drone accompaniment of definite or indefinite pitch. In southern Bihar it is an instrument of mendicant singers, but it is also used by traditional musicians in group dances such as the mardana jhumar (‘men’s jhumar’), and by some Ādivāsī musicians for vocal accompaniment and in communal dances.
In Nepal the ektār is a single-string lute with a long neck and a body made from a calabash or a coconut. It is used by wandering jogisto accompany religious songs of the bhajan type.
For the Bengali and Orissan ektārā (gopīyantra) see Variable tension chordophone.
C. Sachs: Die Musikinstrumente Indiens und Indonesiens (Berlin and Leipzig, 1914, 2/1923)
J. Hoffmann and A.van Emelen: Encyclopaedia mundarica (Patna,1938–50)
K.S. Kothari: Indian Folk Musical Instruments (New Delhi, 1968)
B.C. Deva: Musical Instruments of India (Calcutta, 1978)
CAROL M. BABIRACKI, ALASTAIR DICK, MIREILLE HELFFER/R