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A brief survey of Sa locations: my informal investigation into where Hindustani musicians choose to root their ragas…

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–Raga instruments (full list)–

• Home | Megalist | Search •

—Summary of Sa locations—

(based on a sample of 578 recordings: see Methodology below)

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• G2: Surbahar (Imdadkhani)
• G#2: Rudra Veena (±1)
• A3: Surbahar (Maihar)
• A#3: Sarod (Bangash)
• B3: —
• C3: Sarod (Maihar/Shahjahanpur)
• C#3: Sitar (±1) | Shehnai (+1) | Esraj
• D3: Santoor (Shivkumari) | Dilruba | Khayal male (±2)
• D#3: Santoor (Sufiyana/Maihar) | Sarangi (±1)
• E3: Bansuri (-1) | Violin (-2)
• F3: —
• F#3: —
• G3: —
• G#3: Khayal female (lower)
• A4: Sarangi (Pa-murchana)
• A#4: Khayal female (higher)

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• Other instruments: Vichtra Veena: ~A3/D#3 | Chaturangi: D3 | Mohan Veena: D3 | Rabab: ~D#3 | Taus: ~C#3 | Sursingar: ~E3 | Sursagar: ~A3 | Sagar Veena: C#3 | Tar Shehnai: D3

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• Get started with learning raga! •

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• Methodology •

While compiling my Raga Instruments guide, I realised just how little I really knew about where different artists and traditions choose to ‘locate their Sa’ (i.e. what pitch is used for tuning their root, as well as the tanpura and tabla’s Na stroke?). Beyond the instruments I actually play, I only had a fairly hazy idea: without much of a systematic overview of where in the pitch-range different instruments sit.

 

So, I decided to dive in and conduct a brief, informal survey to answer these questions. This is far from being rigorous science (…I never even intended it to get as systematic as this when I started) – but still, a varied set of 578 recordings is enough to give a relatively accurate picture of the recorded ragascape, and I’ve sought to fill any notable gaps in the sample. A summary of my haphazard methodology:

1. Gather a sample of recordings for each instrument: spanning different eras, performers, gharanas, genders, ages, etc
2. Play each of them and ascertain the Sa location: via matching the tanpura/tabla to the closest fret position on my guitar
3. Compile the results and usefully summarise them: to see which trends & anomalies emerge for different instruments

See below for a breakdown of all results, grouped by instrument / vocal tradition, revealing some surprising pitch-positions and other assorted oddities. Naturally, this is only a rough overview of the true detail – I hope it’s useful for whatever purposes have brought you to this page, and that it might inspire more rigorous work in this area in the future. As ever, don’t hesitate with comments/feedback/criticism!

 

• Instruments / Discussion •

A brief rundown of trends, patterns, outliers, etc – split by instruments and vocal lineages (also see all results sorted by pitch):

—Bansuri—

[n=32; D#:9, E:23]

• Hariprasad Chaurasia and most other prominent bansuriyas prefer E, with others such as Nitanyand Haldipur going a shade lower to D# (although pitch varies according to instrument size: in particular, Pannalal Ghosh played some huge flutes…).

 

—Cello—

[n=8; C:3, C#:3, D:2]

• Saskia Rao-De Haas usually roots at D for her khayal/sitar-infused style, whereas Nancy Lesh goes down to C/C# for her Dhrupad explorations – and modern explorer Jake Charkey sets up at C#.

 

—Dhrupad Vocal—

[n=31; B:4, C:3, C#:13, D:5, D#:5, E:1]

• Among the most pitch-diverse of all categories, with Sa choices spanning around half an octave (and overlapping with the home pitches of most Hindustani instruments) – with Sayeeduddin Dagar often singing all the way down at low B, Wasifuddin and the Mallicks preferring C/C#, and the Senior Dagar brothers taking D/D# and even going as high as E at times. Overall, C# is the predominant choice – a semitone or so lower than the male khayal equivalent (n.b. Pelva Naik, Dhrupad’s leading female vocalist, sings up at G#: the same as lower-voiced female khayal singers). Also note that a vocalist’s chosen pitch can shift: most strikingly, ‘Senior’ Dagar Nasir Aminuddin dropped his Sa significantly after the 1966 passing of his brother Nasir Moinuddin (e.g. this and this, at E and B, are almost 5 semitones apart – essentially spanning the entire category!). Also see the curious case of the Dagarvani ‘non-zero Sa‘ (i.e. deliberately intoning the ‘melodic Sa’ at a subtly different pitch to that of the tanpura).

 

—Dilruba—

[n=6; C#:1, D:2, D#:3]

• All recordings were within around a semitone either side of D, with individual variances seemingly down to size/stringing.

 

—Esraj—

[n=9; C:3, C#:2, D:4]

• Around a semitone lower than the dilruba, averaging around C#, although there are few professional recordings to sample beyond those of Arshad Khan (n.b. the sole ‘boro esraj‘ recording is also in C#).

 

—Harmonium—

[n=10; C:2, C#:1, D:5, D#:2]

• The harmonium’s chromatic flexibilities allow for the use of any note as Sa in principle (with a range of them required for accompanying duties anyway) – however all performers in this sample rooted in the C to D# range for their solo performances.

 

—Jal Tarang—

[n=5; B:2, C#:1, D#:1, A#:1]

• Given the instrument’s DIY design, Sa positions will vary wildly according to bowl sizes and individual preferences, with nothing in this sample to suggest much of a meaningful overall trend (n.b. strictly speaking, some jal tarang recordings take a Sa one octave higher than those listed…but for the sake of comparativity, I’ve filed them within the ‘normal’ span).

 

—Khayal (Female)—

[n=50; G:2, G#:15, A:7, A#:24, B:1, C:1]

• Another wide range, spanning half an octave in total, although two clear favourites emerge: a lower cluster around G# (e.g. Shubha Mudgal & Shruti Sadolikar), and another cluster a tone higher at A# (e.g. Kishori Amonkar & Parveen Sultana). Interestingly, the lowest female examples (e.g. some Manjiri Asanare-Kelkar renditions) just about overlap with the highest male recordings – and the highest Sa in the entire dataset goes to Nina Burmi, at just a shade below high C in her 2006 Darbar set.

 

—Khayal (Male)—

[n=112; B:3, C:10, C#:31, D:23, D#:28, E:9, F:5, F#:2, G:1]

• A strong majority of male singers prefer the C#-D# range, although the long-tail nature of the results reflects a wide range of Sa positions – with Kirana exponent Pran Nath going as low as B, and the ever-experimental Kumar Gandharva regularly pushing over 2/3rds of an octave higher to F/F#, just below the bottom end of the female range – in fact, Vidyadhar Vyas’ Dev Gandhar recording is even higher, at G (n.b. Salamat Ali Khan’s A# can be discounted…as he was only 10 at the time). Other notable vocalists: Pandit Jasraj C#, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan C#, Amir Khan C#/D, Rashid Khan D, Bhimsen Joshi D/D#, Mallikarjun Mansur D#.

 

—Mandolin—

[n=8; C#:3, D:2, D#:1, E:1, F#:1]

• Hindustani mandolin sizes and stringing setups can vary significantly, leading to a wide spread of Sa pitches – although Nasir Ahmed, the preeminent living master, consistently prefers C#.

 

—Piano—

[n=8; C#:1, D:5, D#:2]

• Given the piano’s inherent chromatic capabilities, any note could be used as the starting point for any raga – but in practice, Utsav Lal and Adnan Sami both seem to favour D (and Sami’s D# recording appears to have been pitch-shifted: physically, he’s playing the same keys as if he was in D).

 

—Rabab—

[n=11; C:1, C#:1, D:6, D#:1, E:1, F#:1]

• A wide range, especially for a small dataset – although D seems to be the predominant home tone of most modern performers.

 

—Rudra Veena—

[n=24; G:3, G#:12, A:4, A#:1, C#:1, D:2, E:1]

• Highly variable depending on tradition and stringing preference: Dagarvani beenkars (including Zia & Bahauddin Dagar) usually set their Sa to around G#/A, whereas Asad Ali Khan and his Khandarbani disciples go a shade lower to G – although, given the rudra veena’s extraordinary multi-octave range, it isn’t always clear which saptak contains the ‘home Sa’ (i.e. you could choose to interpret many of Asad Ali Khan’s pieces as using a superlow E/F home tone: deeper than all the current sample). Also see the curious case of the Dagarvani ‘non-zero Sa‘ (i.e. deliberately intoning the ‘melodic Sa’ at a subtly different pitch to that of the tanpura).

 

—Sagar Veena—

[n=4; C:1, C#:3]

• Noor Zehra, the instrument’s only living exponent, seems to prioritise C#.

 

—Santoor—

[n=30; D:24, D#:6]

• Shivkumar Sharma and his followers usually tune to concert D – although Bhajan Sopori (Sufiyana) and Tarun Bhattacharya (Maihar) prefer a semitone higher at D#.

 

—Sarangi—

[n=14; D:1, D#:8, E:5]

• Most exponents tune to around D# for solo recitals (although artists tend to ‘relocate Sa‘ to their Pa string when accompanying female vocalists, thus rendering it closer to A#).

 

—Sarod—

[n=36; A#:8, B:3, C:22, C#:3]

• Maihar sarodiyas such as Ali Akbar Khan and his disciples usually set their Sa as C – but Senia-Bangash khalifa Amjad Ali Khan prefers a low A# (although he does tune up to C in some instances).

 

—Saxophone—

[n=4; C:4]

• All sampled recordings by Jesse Bannister and Jonathan Kay – two of the only raga-sax exponents around – were in C (a natural key for their horns: although Jesse played in D on our 2018 collaboration No Kanjira).

 

—Shehnai—

[n=12; C#:5, D:5, D#:2]

• Bismillah Khan, like most others, usually remains in the C#/D range – although the great master sometimes pushes up to D#.

 

—Sitar—

[n=60; C:5, C#:33, D:22]

• As expected, most sitarists tune closest to C# (in fact, all recordings in the sample were within a semitone or so of this) – although plenty tune to D, and there is more individual variance than I anticipated. Selected artists: Ravi Shankar (C#), Nikhil Banerjee (C#), Vilayat Khan (C/C#), Shahid Parvez (C#/D), Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan (C#), Budhaditya Mukherjee (C#), Manilal Nag (D), Kushal Das (D).

 

—Slide Guitars—

[n=13; C#:4, D:8, D#:1]

• Debashish Bhattacharya usually tunes his chaturangi to concert D (among other things, an excellent key for his many fusion projects), sometimes going down to C# in ‘pure’ classical settings. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt’s most prominent mohan veena albums are also usually in D (and also less often in C#) – while Kamala Shankar goes slightly higher to D#.

 

—Surbahar—

[n=15; G:2, G#:5, A:8]

• Usually around a low G# (~5 semitones below a sitar): with Imdadkhani surbaharyas such as Imrat Khan and Budhaditya Mukherjee tending towards G/G#, and Maihar exponents including Annapurna Devi and Kushal Das preferring the A just above it (although one particular ‘giant surbahar‘ model seems to be rooted all the way down at low F2!).

 

—Sursagar—

[n=1; A:1]

• With no living exponents, the only professional recording I could trace is the astonishing Huntley Archives film of Mamman Khan, taken in the 1940s – with Sa set at low A. More info welcome!

 

—Sursingar—

[n=4; D#:2, E:2]

• Joydeep Mukherjee’s recordings, originally the only ones I could find, are split between D# and E [see my Survey of Sa Tunings for more]. Thankfully, sarod player Dana Akbarinassab kindly sent in valuable information in Oct 2025, based on his own survey of known renditions: “Sursringar was originally developed for performing Dhrupad; this was a very large instrument with no sympathetic strings and tuned quite low. Later on, Radhika Mohan Maitra and his disciples developed a smaller sursringar, tuned higher and with sympathetic strings added to be able to play repertoire outside of the Dhrupad alap, e.g. faster taans. Regarding the tuning, there is no universal for such a non-standard instrument with varying scale lengths, however I have compiled a list based on available recordings of well-known artists: Old Dhrupad Sursringar: Somjit Dasgupta (G: he owns possibly the oldest Sursringar); Birendra Kishore (F: old recording); Jody Stecher (F#: a disciple of the late Dagar brothers): Allauddin Khan (C#/D#: old recording). Modern Sursringar: Joydeep Mukherjee (D#/E); Joydeep Ghosh (E).”

 

—Tabla Tarang—

[n=8; C:5, C#:1, D:1, D#:1]

• Given the instrument’s arbitrary selection possibilities, any Sa position is possible (especially if an artist had a set of dayans tuned to all 12 specific swaras) – but this survey suggests that solo renditions are often rooted at C or a few semitones higher.

 

—Tar Shehnai—

[n=10; C#1:, D:7, D#1:, F#:1]

• All artists root within a semitone or so of D (except this outlier by Sri Piara Singh, which appears to use a high F# on a folk tune: presumably enabled by a custom stringing configuration).

 

—Taus—

[n=5; C#:2, D:3]

• The instrument’s natural root seems to be around C#/D depending on size and performer preferences, although only a few professional recordings are available.

 

—Vichtra Veena—

[n=15; G:1, G#:2, A:2, C#:2, D:1, D#:4, E:2, F:1]

• Highly variable according to stringing and artistic preference – with a cluster of examples in the low G#-A range (e.g. Gopal Shankar Misra & Ragini Trivedi), and another in the higher C#–E range (e.g. Gopal Krishnan & Radhika Sadhika).

 

—Violin—

[n=12; C#:1, D:3, D#:2, E:6]

• Kala Ramnath tunes to ‘DADA‘, thus rendering Sa as D – although most others prefer E, including Sangeeta Shankar, Praveen Sheolikar, & D.K. Datar (the D# inbetween is less common…).

 

—Special Cases—

• Jugalbandis: Given that performing a duet requires a ‘meeting point’ for the two instruments (n.b. see the exception to this rule: the ‘jasrangi jugalbandi‘), a colourful variety of compromises turn up in the sample. Notably, these include Dagarvani vocal/rudra veena duets down at A3, the famous 1968 Call of the Valley album at C#3 (santoor/bansuri/slide guitar), and various collaborations involving sitar or sarangi at D3.
• Extremes: The lowest Sa I’ve ever found on a Hindustani recording is an ultra-low F2 on this bespoke ‘giant surbahar‘ – and the highest-Sa’d female singer in the sample is Nina Burmi, just below C4 (doubtless, there are more extreme examples are out there: if you can improve on these, let me know!)

• All Results •

Sa locations for 578 recordings (see Methodology): naturally, this sample will reflect my own listening biases – but given that I’ve actively sought to compile a broad survey of the recorded ragascape for this project, I feel that it is enough to highlight any core trends…feedback welcome!

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—G2 (6)—

• Rudra Veena (3): Asad Ali Khan / Madhuvanti Pal / Jyoti Hegde
• Surbahar (2): Budhaditya Mukherjee / Imrat Khan
• Vichtra Veena (1): Ragini Trivedi

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—G#2 (19)—

• Rudra Veena (12): Bahauddin Dagar x5 / Z.M. Dagar x3 / Carsten Wicke x2 / Asit Banerjee / Mrunalini
• Surbahar (5): Irshad Khan x3 / Imrat Khan x2
• Vichtra Veena (2): Gopal Shankar Misra x2

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—A3 (17)—

• Surbahar (8): Kushal Das x3 / Annapurna Devi x2 / Pushparaj Koshti x2 / Purbayan Chatterjee
• Rudra Veena (4): Z.M. Dagar x3 / D.R. Parvatikar
• Vichtra Veena (2): Gopal Shankar Misra / Ragini Trivedi
• Sursagar (1): Mamman Khan
• Jugalbandis (2): Gundechas & Rajshekhar Vyas (vocal+rudra veena) / Z.M. & Z.F Dagar (vocal+rudra veena)

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—A#3 (10)—

• Sarod (8): Amjad Ali Khan x8
• Rudra Veena (1): Dabir Khan
• Fretless Guitar (1): Vasant Rai

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—B3 (12)—

• Khayal Male (3): Pran Nath x2 / Kumar Gandharva
• Dhrupad Male (4): Sayeeduddin Dagar x2 / Aminuddin Dagar / Ashish Sankrityayan
• Sarod (3): Amjad Ali Khan x2 / Allauddin Khan
• Jal Tarang (2): S.V. Kanhere / Milind Tulankar

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—C3 (60)—

• Sarod (22): Ali Akbar Khan x5 / Amjad Ali Khan x4 / Buddhadev Dasgupta x2 / Debasmita Bhattacharya x2 / Rajeev Taranath x2  / Wahajat Khan / Bahadur Khan / Ken Zuckerman / Soumik Datta / Prattyush Bannerjee / Tejendra Majumdar / Abhisek Lahiri
• Khayal Male (10): Pran Nath x2 / Amir Khan / Dinkar Kaikini / Dilshad Khan / Abhirang / Latafat Ali Khan / Pandit Jasraj / Bade Ghulam Ali Khan / Faiyaaz Khan
• Sitar (5): Vilayat Khan x2 / Ravi Shankar / Balaram Pathak / Imrat Khan
• Tabla Tarang (5): Kamalesh Maitra x4 / H.P. Ramamurthy
• Saxophone (4): Jesse Bannister x3 / Jonathan Kay
• Dhrupad Male (3): Wasifuddin Dagar x2 / Gundechas
• Esraj (3): Arshad Khan x2 / Bhai Baldeep Singh
• Cello (3): Nancy Lesh x3
• Harmonium (2): Tanmay Deochake x2
• Sagar Veena (1): Noor Zehra
• Rabab (1): Daud Khan Sadozai
• Bazantar (1): Mark Deutsch

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—C#3 (118)—

• Sitar (33): Ravi Shankar x11 / Nikhil Banerjee x5 / Vilayat Khan x4 / Shahid Parvez x3 / Budhaditya Mukherjee x3 / Rais Khan x2 / Imrat Khan / Annapurna Devi / Shahana Banerjee / Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan / Roopa Panesar / Mita Nag
• Khayal Male (31): Amir Khan x5 / Pandit Jasraj x5 / Bhimsen Joshi x3 / Salamat-Nazakat x3 / Bade Ghulam Ali Khan x3 / Ajoy Chakraborty x2 / Abhirang x2 / D.V. Paluskar x2 / Pran Nath / Khadim Ali Khan / Ghulam Mustafa Khan / K.G. Ginde / Mubarak Ali Khan / Rajan-Sajan / Waseem Ahmed Khan
• Dhrupad Male (13): Wasifuddin Dagar x4 / Uday Bhawalkar x4 / Mallicks x3 / Gundechas x2
• Shehnai (5): Bismillah Khan / S. Ballesh / Anant Lal / Ali Ahmad Hussain / Raghunath Prasanna
• Slide Gtrs (4): Debashish Bhattacharya x2 / Brijbhushan Kabra x2
• Sarod (3): Debasmita Bhattacharya / Sharan Rani / Zarin Sharma
• Cello (3): Nancy Lesh x2 / Jake Charkey
• Sagar Veena (3): Noor Zehra x3
• Mandolin (3): Nasir Ahmed x3
• Vichtra Veena (2): Gopal Krishnan / Anurag Singh
• Taus (2): Sandeep Singh / Anshdeep Singh
• Harmonium (1): Suvendu Banerjee
• Rudra Veena (1): Jyoti Hegde
• Violin (1): Kala Ramnath
• Esraj (1): Arshad Khan
• Tar Shehnai (1): Isher Singh
• Boro Esraj (1): Kishan Patel
• Dilruba (1): Kirpal Singh
• Rabab (1): Jaspreet Singh
• Piano (1): Adnan Sami
• Tabla Tarang (1): Kamalesh Maitra
• Jal Tarang (1): Shashikala Dani
• Jugalbandis (3): Wasifuddin & Bahauddin Dagar (vocal-rudra veena) / Shivkumar Sharma & Hariprasad Chaurasia & Brijbhushan Kabra (santoor-bansuri-slide guitar) / Vilayat Khan & Munir Khan (sitar-sarangi)

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—D3 (138)—

• Santoor (24): Shivkumar Sharma x10 / Rahul Sharma x4 / Kiranpal Singh x3 / Tarun Bhattacharya x3 / Ulhas Bapat x2 / Harjinderpal Matharu / Satish Vyas
• Khayal Male (23): Rashid Khan x6 / Amir Khan x5 / Bhimsen Joshi x2 / Ramrang / Fareed Khan / Waseem Ahmed Khan / Srikanth Bakre / Narayanrao Vyas / K.G. Ginde / Salamat-Nazakat / Tejas Koparkar / Vinayak Torvi / Pandit Jasraj
• Sitar (22): Shahid Parvez x4 / Niladri Kumar x2 / Kushal Das x2 / Manilal Nag x2 / Sahana Bannerjee x2 / Mita Nag / Shivnath & Deobrat Mishra / Nikhil Banerjee / Manu Seen / Krishna Bhatt / Shujaat Khan / Manju Mehta / Rais Khan / Purbayan Chatterjee / Vilayat Khan
• Slide Gtrs (8): Vishwa Mohan Bhatt x3 / Debashish Bhattacharya x3 / Deepak Kshirsagar x2
• Tar Shehnai (7): Kirpal Singh Panesar x4 / Baljit Singh x2 / Vinayak Vora
• Rabab (6): Homayoun Sakhi x2 / Saphwat Simab / Master Izhar / Quraishi / Bilal Khan
• Dhrupad Male (5): Senior Dagars x2 / Nirmalya Dey x2 / Mehr Ali
• Shehnai (5): Bismillah Khan x5
• Harmonium (5): Milind Kulkarni / Ravindra Katoti / Omkar Agnihotri / Dwaipayan Roy / Anjana Hegde
• Piano (5): Utsav Lal x4 / Adnan Sami
• Esraj (4): Arshad Khan / Pamalka Karunanayake / Ranadhir Roy / Buddhadev Das
• Taus (3): Preetinder Singh / Arashpreet Singh / Ranbir Singh
• Violin (3): Kala Ramnath x3
• Rudra Veena (2): Jyoti Hegde / Hindraj Divekar
• Cello (2): Saskia Rao-De Haas x2
• Dilruba (2): Ranbir Singh / Preetinder Singh
• Mandolin (2): Ranganath / Tapas Roy
• Sarangi (1): Bundu Khan
• Tabla Tarang (1): Ram Krishna Bose
• Vichtra Veena (1): Radhika Sadhika
• Bass Veena (1): Justin Gray
• Jugalbandis (7): Shivkumar Sharma & Hariprasad Chaurasia (santoor-bansuri) / Rakesh Chaurasia & Purbayan Chatterjee (bansuri-sitar) / Vishwa Mohan Bhatt & Ronu Majumdar (slide guitar-bansuri) / Bhimsen Joshi & Pandit Jasraj (khayal-khayal) / Kushal Das & Shashank Subramanyam (sitar-venu) / Ravi Shankar & Yehudi Menuhin (sitar-violin) / Vilayat Khan & Imrat Khan (sitar-sitar)

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—D#3 (83)—

• Khayal Male (28): Ulhas Kashalkar x5 / Bhimsen Joshi x4 / Venkatesh Kumar x4 / Mallikarjun Mansur x2 / Rajan-Sajan x2 / Vidyadhar Vyas x2 / Jitendra Abhisheki / Kedar Bodas / Arun Dravid / K.G. Ginde / Raghunandan Panshikar / Pandit Jasraj / Amir Khan / Kumar Mardur / Bade Ghulam Ali Khan
• Bansuri (9): Pannalal Ghosh x5 / Nityanand Haldipur x2 / Hariprasad Chaurasia / Rupak Kulkarni
• Sarangi (8): Sultan Khan x3 / Sabri Khan x2 / Bharat Bhushan Goswami / Abdul Latif Khan / Kamal Sabri
• Santoor (6): Tarun Bhattacharya x3 / Bhajan Sopori x2 / Abhai Rustum Sopori
• Dhrupad Male (5): Senior Dagars x5
• Vichtra Veena (4): Gopal Krishnan / Gopal Shankar Misra / Ajeet Singh / Ramesh Prem
• Dilruba (3): Mehak / Baljit Singh / Manav Singh
• Shehnai (2): Bismillah Khan x2
• Violin (2): D.K. Datar x2
• Piano (2): Adnan Sami x2 ^[a]
• Sursingar (2): Joydeep Mukherjee x2
• Harmonium (2): Vishwanath Kanhere / Aashna Jain
• Tar Shehnai (1): Vinayak Vora
• Rabab (1): Mohammed Omar
• Sundari (1): Bhimanna Jadhav
• Slide Gtrs (1): Kamala Shankar
• Tabla Tarang (1): Ram Krishna Bose
• Jal Tarang (1): Ranjana Pradhan
• Mandolin (1): Gagandeep Singh
• Bulbul Tarang (1): Kishor Nandoskar

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—E3 (46)—

• Bansuri (17): Hariprasad Chaurasia x5 / Rupak Kulkarni x4 / Ronu Majumdar x3 / Rakesh Chaurasia x2 / Rajendra Prasanna x2 / Pannalal Ghosh
• Khayal Male (9): Bhimsen Joshi x3 / Venkatesh Kumar x2 / D.V. Paluskar / Jayateerth Mevundi / Ram Deshpande / Omkarnath Thakur / Bade Ghulam Ali Khan ^[b] / Narayanrao Vyas ^[c]
• Violin (6): Sangeeta Shankar x2 / D.K. Datar x2 / Praveen Sheolikar / Sisirkana Chowdhury
• Sarangi (5): Sultan Khan x4 / Ram Narayan
• Vichtra Veena (2): Brahm Sarup Singh / Habibkhan Alladiakhan
• Sursingar (2): Joydeep Mukherjee x2
• Dhrupad Male (1): Senior Dagars
• Rudra Veena (1): Asad Ali Khan ^[*]
• Datta Veena (1): D.R. Parvatikar
• Mandolin (1): Muthumal Gunathilake
• Rabab (1): Gulab Afridi ^[d]

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—F3 (6)—

• Khayal Male (5): Kumar Gandharva x4 / Abdul Karim Khan
• Vichtra Veena (1): Habib Ali Khan

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—F#3 (5)—

• Khayal Male (2): Kumar Gandharva x2
• Rabab (1): Shehzad Ali Sultani
• Tar Shehnai (1): Sri Piara Singh
• Mandolin (1): Snehasish Mozumder

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—G3 (3)—

• Khayal Female (2): Manjiri Asanare-Kelkar / Girija Devi ^[e]
• Khayal Male (1): Vidyadhar Vyas

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—G#3 (19)—

• Khayal Female (15): Shubha Mudgal x3 / Shruti Sadolikar x2 / Priya Purushothaman x2 / Padma Talwalkar / Prabha Atre / Malini Rajurkar / Roshan Ara Begum / Gangubai Hangal / Manjiri Asanare-Kelkar / Apoorva Gokhale / Girija Devi
• Dhrupad Female (4): Pelva Naik x4

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—A4 (7)—

• Khayal Female (7): Girija Devi x3 / Nirali Kartik / Malini Rajurkar / Shubha Mudgal / Shashwati Mandal

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—A#4 (26)—

• Khayal Female (24): Kishori Amonkar x7 / Parveen Sultana x4 / Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande x3 / Meeta Pandit x3 / Indrani Mukherjee x2 / Anuradha Kuber / Kaushiki Chakraborty / Nina Burmi / Veena Sahasrabuddhe / Prabha Atre
• Khayal Male (1): Salamat Ali Khan ^[f]
• Jal Tarang (1): Milind Tulankar

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—B4 (1)—

• Khayal Female (1): Nina Burmi

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—C4 (1)—

• Khayal Female (1): Nina Burmi

—Anomalies / Footnotes—

• [a] Adnan Sami’s electric keyboard set is in D#, but he plays the same keys as if he was in D (i.e. a digital pitch-shift)
• [b] Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’s earliest recordings, cut in his late 20s, take a higher Sa of ~E (vs. ~C# in his later years)
• [c] Narayanrao Vyas’ sets Bhavani‘s Sa as E, but the tabla is tuned to A (presumably to accentuate the raga’s ma-murchana)
• [d] Gulab Afridi plays Yaman in E on his rabab, but the tabla is tuned to B (=Pa), either for artistic or practical reasons
• [e] Girija Devi’s slightly lower pitch here (G on Jogkauns) is likely an adaption to advancing years (in her late 80s!)
• [f] Salamat Ali Khan cut the recording when he was only 10…so this one can safely be disregarded from its category

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