---
title: "Santoor: Kashmiri Hammered Dulcimer | Model Diplomat"
description: "The santoor, a Kashmiri hammered dulcimer, is vital to Sufiana Mausiqi and was popularized in Hindustani classical music by Shivkumar Sharma."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/santoor"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- The santoor is a trapezoidal hammered dulcimer of Kashmiri origin, played with two light wooden mallets across a multi-bridge soundboard strung with metal strings.
- Why was the santoor historically considered unsuitable for Hindustani classical music?
- How does the santoor differ from the sitar and sarod?
- What is the connection between the santoor and Kashmir?
- Who elevated the santoor to a solo classical instrument?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

The santoor is a trapezoidal hammered dulcimer of Kashmiri origin, played with two light wooden mallets across a multi-bridge soundboard strung with metal strings.

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### Supporters

Structurally, the santoor consists of a hollow trapezoidal box, conventionally fashioned from walnut wood, over which run a set of metal strings grouped in courses. Each course of three to four strings is tuned to a single pitch and passes over small movable bridges (ghora) arranged in two rows along the soundboard, so that a single physical string may sound two pitches on either side of its bridge. The player rests the instrument flat on the lap or on a low support and strikes the courses with a pair of lightweight curved mallets called kalam or mezrab, held delicately between the fingers. Tuning is achieved by adjusting tension at the pin block and by sliding the bridges, allowing the performer to configure the instrument to the requirements of a particular raga before performance.

### Opponents

The traditional Kashmiri santoor carried roughly twenty-five bridges supporting around a hundred strings and was tuned to the specific scale demanded by a Sufiana composition, which limited its melodic range. The instrument's percussive, fixed-pitch character meant that the continuous glide between notes — the meend so central to Hindustani vocal and string aesthetics — could not be produced directly, as the strings are struck rather than stopped against a fingerboard. To adapt the santoor for concert classical music, twentieth-century innovators expanded the number of bridges and strings, refined the mallet technique, and developed methods of approximating ornamentation through rapid striking, controlled damping, and string-bending, thereby extending the available tonal palette across multiple octaves.

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Example

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma performed the santoor as a solo Hindustani classical instrument in Bombay in the mid-1950s and scored the 1981 film Silsila with flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia as "Shiv-Hari."

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