I bought this sitar 4 years ago from Lars when he had just started Sitarsetc.com. He is no longer part of that company. He is now the founder of raincitymusical.com

This sitar was one of the original sitars made by Mangla Prasaad Sharma in Calcutta for Srishti Musical in 2004. It is a copy of Pandit Ravi Shankar's famous sitar. It comes with an oversized natural upper gourd, which really adds to the sound while being light weight. Most sitars of this style come with a heavy spun wood upper gourd. This sitar was played regularly. It has a full mature sound. The jawari is fully open with a delightfully buzzing sound like Pandit Ravi Shankar in the 1960s. There are no plastic or synthetic parts on this sitar. Indian deer horn was used to make the jawari, tarab eyelets, chickari posts and nuts. It is very difficult to find this kind of horn these days. (No animals were killed for their horns; horns are sloughed yearly and gathered.) It is now illegal to export horn from India. A lot of top makers are using synthetic parts. This is a full sized sitar with a 14" tabli. This is a great sitar, but I have to part with it since I am playing surbahar exclusively now. I hope it brings joy to the life of the buyer like it did to mine.