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At my Guruji's house, there was a classic Sursingar, which I found very challenging to play. My gharana has a long history of musical experimentation. My dada-guru conducted numerous experiments to create new musical instruments. He developed several rare instruments, including the Dilbahar (a mix of Sitar and Sarod), Mohanveena (a mix of Sarod, Veena & Surbahar), and Nabadeepa (a mix of Sursingar & Esraj). After learning about his creations, I was motivated to popularise some of them for music lovers to experience tradition and history.







When I started this new journey, I noticed that not many luthiers specialise in making such instruments. However, this did not hold me back. On the contrary, my fascination towards these instruments inspired me to revive and recreate these instruments and find ways to generate awareness and interest among people.



While I successfully revived the Sursingar in three to four years, India had already succumbed to the deadly waves of the pandemic. With the onset and rise of digitisation in performing arts, I started creating and posting videos on YouTube. When my friends, family and audience started engaging with these videos, they slowly gained traction. Soon, I realised that I had uploaded the highest-ever number of videos of Sursingar on social media, and my efforts were visible for the India and Asia Book of Records to acknowledge and recognise!



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Nevertheless, this was not an easy feat for me. I faced significant challenges and constraints faced during this project. To begin with, learning about such instruments and creating them is difficult. First, only limited recordings are available, and then recreating such ancient instruments using modern hardware is another complex obstacle. These instruments are nearly 150-200 years old, and no craftsmen make or specialise in such unique items. Therefore, there is a lengthy cycle of trial and error before approving the design and tonal quality. The whole manufacturing process can take up to two years. I would have to build a new instrument from scratch if the existing one did not have the appropriate tone qualities. Besides being a time-consuming effort, it involves high costs and purchases.