The sitar (IAST: sitāra) is a plucked stringed instrument originating from the Indian subcontinent, used principally in Hindustani classical music. It is among the most recognisable instruments associated with North Indian musical traditions and has become a familiar emblem of Indian culture across the world.
According to modern scholarship, the instrument was invented in the 18th century and attained its present form in the 19th century. Khusrau Khan, an 18th-century figure associated with the Mughal Empire, has been identified as its inventor. Most historians hold that he developed the sitar from the setar, an Iranian instrument of Abbasid or Safavid origin. The instrument is widely used throughout the Indian subcontinent and occupies a central place in the solo and ensemble repertoire of Hindustani classical music.
The sitar became popularly known in the wider world through the works of Ravi Shankar, beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His performances and recordings introduced international audiences to the instrument and to the broader idiom of Indian classical music.
The advent of psychedelic culture during the mid-to-late 1960s set a trend for the use of the sitar in Western popular music. The instrument appeared on tracks by bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Metallica and several others, marking a notable phase of cross-cultural musical exchange.
Adapted from the English Wikipedia article on the Sitar.