Cineplot Music

Rabab (Rebab)

Rabab

This is a music instrument of Persian or Afghan origin of the same name but adopted during Mughal times in the reign of Emperor Akbar by Tansen. The rabab has no frets unlike the sitar but has four strings, one or two of brass and two of gut with sympathetic metal strings attached to the side. All the strings could also be of gut. Strings are tuned either Sa Pa Ma Sa or Sa Sa Pa Pa Ma or Sa Sa Pa Sa Ga. The rabab is usually played with a plectrum, but sometimes also adapted for playing with a bow. It has a fine brilliant tone and its shallow bowl is usually made from mulberry wood. Rabab and the veena were the popular instruments during Mughal times and rabab was usually accompanied by pakhawaj. Tansen himself belonged to the Beenkar family but he also played the rabab and his successors and descendents were either known as Beenkars or Rababiars. His daughter Saraswati had married a veena player Mishri Singh who belonged to the Beenkar branch while descendents of his son Bilas Khan who was a rabab player came to be known as the Rababiars branch.

The rabab has now been superseded by the sarod in classical music performance, thanks to adaptation and popularization of this instrument in Bengal in the nineteenth century which also manufactures high quality sarods. Its last exponents were given recognition by the Rampur State. At present it is not much heard of as a solo instrument. Some like Ustad Amjad Ali Khan credit this instrument to be the precursor of the modern sarod but this has been disputed by distinguished sarod players belonging to Ustad Allauddin Khan gharana like Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s son Ashish Khan and Smt. Sharan Rani Mathur (née Backliwal) who contend that actually sarod has had an independent evolution and dates back to the ancient Mauryan period as a sarod like instrument has been depicted in the Sanchi stupas and sculptures at Amravati.

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