Dutar

Dutar

Classification	Plucked string instrument
Related instruments
Çiftelia

For the Bangladeshi instrument, see dotara.

The dutar ( Persian: دو تار , Tajik: дутор, Uzbek: dutor) (also dotar or doutar) is a traditional long-necked two-stringed lute found in Iran, Central Asia and South Asia. Its name comes from the Persian word for "two strings", دو تار dotār (< دو do "two", تار tār "string"), although the Herati dutar of Afghanistan has fourteen strings. When played, the strings are usually plucked by the Uyghurs of Western China and strummed and plucked by the Tajiks, Turkmen, Uzbeks, Afghan people, and in Pakistan. A related instrument is played by the baul community of West Bengal and Bangladesh, and is called dotara.

In the instrument's 15th-century beginnings in the hands of shepherds, its strings were made from gut. With the coming of the Silk Road, the strings were made from twisted silk. Modern instruments also have silk or nylon strings.

The dutar has a warm, dulcet tone. Typical sizes for the pear-shaped instrument range from one to two meters.

Notable players

• Haj Ghorban Soleimani (1922–2008)

See also

• Music of Iran
• Music of Afghanistan
• Music of Pakistan
• Music of Tajikistan
• Music of Turkmenistan
• Music of Central Asia
• Dotara
• Bağlama
• Çiftelia

External links

• Listen famous Dutar tunes
• Encyclopedia of Persian Music Instruments
• Dutar Music of Turkmenistan (ethnomusicology essay by Graham Flett, 2001)
• Setar Instrumental Family: Dotar
• Youtube video of dutar music
• Picture of a Dutar