Sitar (c. 1850): Art, History and Details

Sitar (c. 1850) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The stringed instrument known as the sitar usually provided the central sound for the musical performances that were a constant feature of court life in India. The sitar could then be accompanied by percussion, voice, and other supporting instruments. In Raja Deen Dayal’s photograph Maharaja of Rewa in Prayer (2016.266.21), a musician strums a sitar in order to please the deities on the royal altar. The improvised compositions are played in a mode, or key, that correlates to the time of day and season of the year.

Object facts

• Title: Sitar
• Date: c. 1850
• Culture: Eastern India, Bengal or Bangladesh
• Type: Musical Instrument
• Technique: Gourd and wood with pigment, ivory, and bone; copper alloy: frets; iron alloy: strings (with one modern copper replacement)
• Dimensions: Overall: 95.2 x 15.3 cm (37 1/2 x 6 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1918.346

A detail from the museum

Many paintings of Indian court life depict female musicians holding and playing this kind of lightweight stringed instrument.

Collection credit

The Charles G. King Jr. collection; Gift of Ralph King in memory of Charles G. King Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 8/9 (1918): 82-85.
• D. S. M. "Exhibition of Musical Instruments." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 8, no. 9 (1921): 134-43.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.