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Dilruba
The dilruba (lit. “enchanter of the heart”) is a bowed instrument from West
India. The dilruba is the cousin of the esraj of central and northeast India. It has a neck,
similar to that of a sitar, while the soundboard resembles a sarangi. The The
dilruba is very similar to esraj.
Unlike the esraj, the dilruba
is slightly bigger in width and the resonator resembles a sarangi
(as opposed to the esraj’s resemblance of the sarod or sarinda). In addition,
there are four more strings on top, known as the jawari
strings, which function to give a sympathetic buzz to the most predominant
notes. Lastly, the sympathetic strings are attached through the neck as an
intermediate, whereas the esraj’s sympathetic strings
start from the peg and goes through the bridge directly. Despite these
differences, the esraj and dilruba
playing technique are so similar that one could interchange between them.
UPDATED: March 12, 2012