Double-chested fiddle of southern Afghanistan (used by the Pashtun and Baluchi people) and South Asia. The body is very distinctive: basically heart-shaped (broad at the top, pointed at the bottom and rounded at the back), it is deeply waisted at the sides, on the anterior part of the body (in East India, the waisting often continues to the back), leaving two large symmetrical, open barbs as the upper bouts and a smaller ovoid or inverted barbed section as the lower (see illustration). Only the lower section is covered with a skin soundtable, and on this rests a wooden bridge, usually at an angle. The neck is short and in many types the unfretted fingerboard extends vertically across the upper chamber. The pegbox is often bent back, with lateral pegs, and in some areas is surmounted by a carved bird. The bow is heavy and curved.
The sārindā type is widespread from eastern Iran (the sorud) to North-East India. In Afghanistan, Pakistan and North India it is usually called sārindā; in Sind, Baluchistan and Rajasthan it is known as surando, saroz and surindā; in East and North-East India as banam, sarejā and sananta; and in Nepal as sārangī. The sārindā is related to, and may derive from, the Central Asian shaman’s fiddle qobuz; its use in Baluchistan and Sind in exorcism and to cure melancholia further indicates relationship with that instrument. In north-western areas it commonly accompanies vocal or flute music, while in the north-eastern states it may accompany traditional dance, sometimes with the dotārā (long lute). It is played in an upright position.
C.R. Day: The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan (Delhi, 1891/R)
C. Sachs: Die Musikinstrumente Indiens und Indonesiens (Berlin and Leipzig, 1914, 2/1923)
K.S. Kothari: Indian Folk Musical Instruments (New Delhi, 1968)
JOHN BAILY/R, ALASTAIR DICK/R