Hand Crafted Pure Wooden Iktara (Tumbi)

• Colour Brown
• Back Material Type Plastic, Bamboo

About this item

• Single string
• Length 21 inches
• Folk music instrument from India

Product description

• Ektar is a simple folk instrument. It is used to provide both a drone as well as simple rhytmic accompaniment to folk songs.
• It may be the oldest stringed instrument in the Indian subcontinent.
• The ektar is described in ancient Sanskrit texts as the ekatantri vina, literally the “one stringed lute”.
• In Punjab the ektar is known as the tumbi The construction is very simple, it is nothing more than a gourd which has been penetrated by a stick of bamboo.
• Another piece of bamboo forms the tuning peg.
• The bridge is merely a coin, piece of coconut, plastic or similar object. Ektars such as this are common in the south.
• In the north, their construction is a little more complicated.
• A membrane is stretched over the gourd and the bridge is placed over the taut membrane.