The strains of Raag Puriya Dhanashree filled a vaulted hall at the Victoria and Albert Museum here, as rudraveena maestro Ustad Bahauddin Dagar coaxed to life an instrument, from the museum’s collection, last played in the late 19th century.
The bin-sitar is a rare hybrid that shares structural and musical elements with both the rudraveena and the sitar. As the rudraveena, the bin-sitar has two gourds, though much smaller. Its moveable frets and flat spine are like the sitar. The instrument is no longer played in India.
The museum’s specimen — believed to have come from the Poona region — was restored to its original brilliance and restrung for the occasion.
It was part of the collection of Major Charles Russell Day (1860-1900), the author of The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and Deccan (1891), who acquired it in the late 19th century. It became part of the museum’s collection in 1921.
“This is an exciting and unprecedented moment,” Katherine B. Schofield, a historian of music at King’s College, London, told The Hindu . “It is the first time that something like this has been tried: to have a contemporary musician play an ancient instrument in the collection.”
She said the instrument was mentioned in Sarmaya-i Ishrat, a treatise on music by Mirza Khalid Sahib in 1869-70.
Ustad Dagar, who at the start of the performance confessed “I could not hold myself back when I first saw it,” told The Hindu that he had never played it before. He added, “I am going to get one made for myself.”
The event was organized by the V&A and Darbar, a South Asian classical musical organisation, as part of the museum’s Musical Wonders of India exhibition, and to coincide with the annual Darbar festival of Indian music held at the South Bank Centre.
