Hiren Roy / Barun Ray

He wanted to be a sitar player, not a sitar maker.

Hiren Roy was born in Bengal in 1923 and came to Calcutta at fourteen to learn the instrument. He studied under Bimalakanta RoyChoudhury of the Imdadkhani gharana, and later with Annapurna Devi. What he did not have was money, for lessons or for a sitar of his own. So he took work in a Calcutta instrument shop, did odd jobs, and slowly bought wood, gourds and tools. He began building sitars for himself. Musicians in the city started noticing them, and in 1943 he stopped building for himself and started a workshop.

He spent the rest of his life on one problem: he wanted the sitar to sound like a human voice. That is not a marketing line, it is a design brief, and you can see it in the instruments. He built the tabli and the dandi strong enough to take heavier strokes on thicker strings, because that is what deep meend demands. The result is the clarity and the vocal quality that Nikhil Banerjee, Vilayat Khan, Annapurna Devi and Ravi Shankar all built careers on.

He was honoured in Calcutta in 1971 and died in December 1992, having spent his last years coming into the shop every day.

The work continues through his youngest son, Barun Ray. Barun is a musician like his father and an innovator like him too: as horn for bridges became scarce he developed synthetic bridges that hold their shape longer and need jawari re-dressing less often. He has closed the old shop on Rash Behari Avenue and works from his house, and he now signs instruments "Barun Ray, Hiren Roy's Son" rather than "Hiren Roy and Sons".

We carry his work when we can get it, which is not often and never in quantity. If what you want is not listed here, message us on WhatsApp. This is exactly the kind of instrument where we will tell you honestly what can be sourced and how long it will take.

See Sitar and Sitar Brands.