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Surbahar

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 bass sitar used for slow, meditative alap in Indian classical music

Detailed Definition
The surbahar’s deep, resonant drones appear in Sufi and classical Indian poetry to symbolize contemplation, cosmic depth, and lyrical patience; its role in extended improvisation makes it a metaphor for the slow unfolding of spiritual and emotional truth in verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
The surbahar’s deep, resonant strings mirror the introspective mood of a Rumi-inspired ghazal; In a modern Urdu poem, the surbahar’s drone becomes the heartbeat of forgotten empires; Poets liken the surbahar’s slow alap to the unfolding of dawn over the Ganges; A contemporary Indian poet describes the surbahar as “the cello of the sitar family, singing sorrow in raga Darbari”; In diasporic South Asian verse, the surbahar evokes ancestral echoes from Mughal courts; A poem by Agha Shahid Ali references the surbahar’s “long-necked lament” as a metaphor for exile.
Additional Notes
The surbahar is a bass sitar used in Hindustani classical music, with a deeper, more resonant tone and slower response; designed for alap (slow, unmetered improvisation), it embodies contemplation and gravity—ideal for poems about depth in raga, the patience of unfolding time, or the surbahar as the “bass voice” of Indian meditative aesthetics.
Also Known As
Bass sitar surbahar sitar
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