#darbarfestival | Irshad Khan plays the surbahar (bass sitar), using its thick, deep-toned timbres to explore Raag Darbari, harking back to when musicians played for kings at the royal court.
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The surbahar’s deep-toned strings can bend upwards over an octave, allowing artists to explore the contours of a raga using only a single fret. Suited to the slow elaborations of dhrupad, it is large, heavy, and notoriously difficult to master. Here it is played by Irshad Khan, who hails from the illustrious Etawah (‘Imdadkhani’) gharana alongside greats such as Shahid Parvez, Vilayat Khan, and Imrat Khan (Irshad’s father). His ancestors gave shape to the modern sitar, customising the design and mastering gayaki ang (singing style). Irshad lives in Canada today, playing and teaching sitar and surbahar around the world.

Here he plays a heavily ornamented jhalla from Raag Darbari, described by musicologist Deepak Raja as being “the emperor of ragas, and the raga of emperors”. The word ‘darbar’ refers to to the royal courts of past ages, and it is easy to imagine Darbari’s majestic tones echoing across marble floors, bringing solemn relief to kings, diplomats, and warlords. The mood is grave, reverential, and often slow, blending lyrical passages with a precise microtonal geometry. Its optional ‘Kanada’ suffix denotes the raga’s likely origins in Carnatic music - some consider it to have been imported North by Mian Tansen in the 16th century.

It uses Asavari thaat [SRgmPdnS], with Re and Pa as the vadi and samvadi [king and queen notes]. Characteristic phrase resolutions include gmR and dnP, and the raga is often elaborated in mandra saptak [low octave]. Musicians often pause on Ga and Dha, ornamenting them with andolit [heavy oscillations]. It resembles the modern Carnatic Raga Natabhairavi, and the Western natural minor scale.

Recorded for Darbar on 4 Apr 2008, at the Phoenix, Leicester
-Irshad Khan (surbahar)
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