Board zither surmandal, made in North India. The wooden box is painted red with a single soundshole in the centre of the table encircled by two pairs of painted concentric rings. 36 open strings, 28 of plain wire and 8 overwound bass strings, all tuned from metal wrest pins that are adjusted with a separate tuning key, and wound around pins beneath a wooden slat at the opposite end. The 10 highest and shortest strings are of graduated lengths from top to bottom, while the 26 lower strings are tuned as paired ranks, possibly in fifths. The wooden bridges for the strings are fixed and each is surmounted by a thin brass rod. Each string is threaded with an iridescent tuning bead.
