The origin of the Indian sitar is usually attributed to Amir Khusrau, the celebrated musician, poet and statesman at the court of Sultan Alaudin Khilji of Delhi. A sitar originally had only three strings: the name sitar is derived from the Persian She-Tar, which means three strings.  In principle, it is a Veena- it is opined that Amir Khusrau improved upon one of the existing Veenas and the result was a type of sitar.  The sitar today consists of seven strings on the upper part for playing and eleven sympathetic strings under the main strings, running parallel to them.  Sitar evolved as a key instrument of Indian classical music from the 20th century.  Pandit Ravi Shankar popularized the instrument and the Hindustani genre of music outside of India. 
 
SIFAS has been teaching the sitar since its early days.  Guru Susanta Choudhury taught sitar at SIFAS until 2003, after which Guru Chandranath Bhattacharya taught from 2003 until 2010.  Guru Susanta Choudhury rejoined SIFAS in 2010 and has been the sitar teacher since then. 

TUTORS

Guru Susanta Chowdhury
SITAR
​Room No 03-04

Guru Susanta who hails from Kolkata, had his early training from his father Sri Bhupendra Nath Chowdhury and went under the tutelage of Sri Shyamal Chattopadhya. He then became a disciple of the famed Padmabhushan Pandit Debu Chaudhuri. He received his M.A. Music from Delhi University and was a Gold Medalist. He is an "A" Grade artiste of All-India Radio and has performed widely on TV. He is an empanelled artiste in ICCR and has performed in India, USA, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Indonesia, China and Singapore, having accompanied Padmabhusan Pt. Birju Maharaj, Saswati Sen, Bhaswati & Krisnamohan Maharaj, Rammohan Maharaj, Ranjana Gawhar, Reela Hota. 

​Guru Susanta was formerly with SIFAS from July 1999 to June 2003. He re-joined in January 2011.  He also teaches the Sitar discipline at NUS. 

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