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Shekhar Borkar conceptualized the "Surtarang" a combination of the vichitra veena and sarod. This is very similar to the "Mohan Veena" developed by Radhika Mohan Maitra in 1948.

The "Gottuvadyam" is a fretless slide instrument of South India, and is nearly extinct. Budaloor Krishnamurti Shastri (1894–1978) contributed to the popularity of his instrument and is considered an inspiration for Chitravina Narasimhan and his son, N. Ravikiran, who champions the instrument currently. This recording dates back to the early 1950s.

The "esraj" is sort of like a bowed sitar, but the soundboard is stretched goatskin like a sarangi. Takashi Kougo learnt from esraj player Ranadir Roy.

A similar instrument is the "dilruba", slightly larger than an esraj and has a larger, square resonance box. (It is the dilruba that was heard on the Beatles' 'Within You Without You'.)

The sundari or sundri is a double reed wind instrument, similar to a shehnai, but smaller, and suited for fast tempo folk music.

Studying under Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna, and flautist N. S. Srinivasan, K. Siva Prasad chose to whistle Carnatic kritis.

Anayampatti S. Ganesan was born in Chennai in 1932. His jalatharangam is a set of 19 antique porcelain bowls from China that are 100 years old.

The "Swara Mandala" is basically a box zither, but it has been in the Indian subcontinent for centuries, usually just strummed by vocalists. It is heard here played by Swami Dattatreya Rama Rao Parvatikar [1916-1990], known mostly as a rudra vina player and sanyasi (monk).

Debashish Bhattacharya was born into a musical family in Kolkata on 12 January 1963.

He designs his own instruments. The bodies are that of a guitar, but the rest is all his.

R. Prasanna (better known as Guitar Prasanna), was born on 2 October 1970, and grew up in Chennai. He is a pioneer in performing Carnatic music on the electric guitar. He also plays jazz, progressive rock, and world fusion.

Born in Madras on 26 April 1950, he is the son of violinist V. Lakshminarayana, and brother of L. Subramaniam and L. Vaidyanathan. While attending college at Wesleyan University, he met jazz musicians like Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Garrison, and John McLaughlin. With McLaughlin, Shankar founded the group Shakti in 1975, one of the early groups in which Eastern and Western musical traditions met. Shankar designed this custom double-neck electric violin around 1980, which soon found its way onto numerous crossover collaborations.

The mandolin is another recent import into ICM. Mandolin music was used in Indian movies as far back as the 1940s, prominently by Nasir Sajjad Hussain (1917 – 1995), who also performed classical music on acoustic mandolin.

U. Srinivas (28 February 1969 - 19 September 2014) was a child prodigy. He was the first musician to use the electric mandolin in Carnatic music. He modified the electric western instrument, using five single strings instead of the traditional four doubled strings to suit the Carnatic pitch, raga system, and especially "gamakas", or nuanced oscillations. He developing a phenomenal style of playing entirely his own, and astonishingly, on an instrument that had never been played in the rigorous and difficult Carnatic style before.

Keyboards are another import to the Indian subcontinent. The harmonium arrived in India during the mid-19th century, possibly with missionaries or traders. The harmonium quickly became popular, being portable, reliable and easy to learn. The harmonium has almost completely replaced the sarangi as an accompaniment to Hindustani vocalists, even though it isn’t really well suited for Indian Classical Music.

We'll hear a duet featuring harmonium by Jnan Prakash Ghosh (usually a percussionist), and Vistas Ardeshir Balsara on the piano.

Kadri Gopalnath (6 December 1949 – 11 October 2019) pioneered the saxophone in Indian Classical Music.

Manohar Barve was an instrumentalist and singer in the Gwalior Gharana. This recording, issued on a 78 rpm disc by HMV circa 1932, uses what was called a "musical submarine", known nowadays as a "kazoo". Simple membrane instruments played by vocalizing, such as the onion flute, have existed since at least the 16th century.

Pawan Dhanak plays the clarinet, a single reed woodwind instrument.

Shafeeque Sheikh playing a "bulbul tarang", a keyed electric string instrument, literally “waves of nightingales”, evolved from the Japanese taishogoto, which arrived in the subcontinent in the 1930s. Similar to an autoharp. With typewriter keys.

A "morsing tarang" by L. Bhimachar and family. The Morsing / Jew’s harp is really global, dating back to at least 3rd century BCE in China. It is cheap, rugged, and transportable, so it spread all over the world. It can be heard in Carnatic music as percussion accompaniment, and as the "morchang" in Rajasthani folk music in North India.

Nathumuni Brothers were a Carnatic brass band, well known for their Clarinet Kutcheries. The lead clarinet is by Lakshmipathi Naidu.

The Clarinet appeared on the subcontinent at around the same time as the violin. It was brought to India during the reign of King Sarabhoji II of Tanjavur. It was used as an accompaniment for the chinna melam (the lesser ensemble) which accompanied the dance performances of the Devadasis.

The Madras String Quartet (two violins, one viola, one cello) perform Carnatic kritis, arranged by violinist V. S. Narasimhan.