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Dilruba

Musical Instrument
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A North Indian bowed string instrument with a resonant, melancholic tone

Detailed Definition
The dilruba’s expressive, vocal-like quality appears in Urdu and Punjabi poetry to convey romantic longing and spiritual yearning; its name means “heart-thief,” making it a potent metaphor for love’s pain and the soul’s cry in ghazal and Sufi-inspired verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Sikh devotional poetry, the dilruba’s bowed strings carry the ache of divine longing; Poets describe its sympathetic strings as “echoes of the soul’s hidden chambers”; The dilruba appears in Sufi-inspired verse as the instrument of mystical union; Its name (“heart-thief”) becomes a metaphor for music that steals sorrow away; In diaspora poetry, the dilruba ties Punjab to global spiritual search; Contemporary poets use the dilruba to explore resonance—feeling sound in the chest.
Additional Notes
The dilruba is a North Indian bowed lute with sympathetic strings, producing a haunting, vocal tone; used in devotional and light classical music, it evokes pathos and longing—ideal for poems about unfulfilled desire, spiritual yearning, or the resonance of memory.
Also Known As
Dilruba fiddle
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