Chikara: India musical instrument

The chikara is a bowed stringed musical instrument from Bengal, India. The musical instrument used to play the Indian folk music. The instrument is played by the tribal people of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

source of picture: meloteca.com

The musical instrument is a simple spike fiddle that is played analogously to the sarangi or saringda, by sliding fingernails on the strings of the instrument instead of pressing them to touch the fingerboard. The musical instrument has three strings, two horse hair and one steel string, in three courses and can be tuned C, F, G.

The name, ‘chikara’ is normally used ambiguously to describe a variety of unrelated folk fiddles of the northern part of India.