Káchapi (Kacchapa, a tortoise) Vína, now known as Káchwâ Sitár. The usual tuning of Sitárs having from three to seven strings is to these intervals:-- [Music] In these tunings C is the khuruj or keynote, the melody string being máhdyamâ or F. Sitárs have usually seventeen to eighteen frets. The five methods of arranging them, so as to produce different modes, styled Thât, are as follows:-- [Illustration: Intervals upon the F or melody string.] The word "Thât," employed to signify scale or mode, should not be confounded with "Râga," the foundation of all Indian music. Râga has no equivalent in European musical language, but may be described as a melody type founded upon the intervals of a mode, and having a succession of notes so arranged as to excite a certain feeling of the mind. There may be many melodies in the same râga, differing distinctly from each other. Methods for the Sitár have been written in Bengâli by the Rájah Sir S.M. Tagore, a well-known amateur, and in Mahrátti by a Brahmin musician of Poona, Anna Ghárpure, a fine performer now in the service of H.H. the Thâkore Sahib of Wadhwân. Besides the Rájah Rám Pál Singh, I had an opportunity of hearing a player from Jeypur, at an exhibition called "India in London," in 1886. The technique and charm of his performance are not easily forgotten. The resonance body of an ordinary Sitár is a gourd, but he had one with two gourds, known as the "Been," or Vína Sitár. The Sitár in the centre, with fiddle-shaped body, is the Súrsanga, or Esrar without sympathetic strings, a bowed instrument combining the Sitár with the Sárungí. It is a modern instrument, and is intended to accompany women's voices. It has four strings, tuned, upon the authority of the Rájah Sir S.M. Tagore, as given by Mr. Victor Mahillon in his admirable Catalogue of the Museum of the Brussels Conservatoire, [Music].