Sitar Click here to see a video of Roger playing the Sitar

Hiren Roy & Sons

A History of the craftsmen who made Roger's Sitar.

The name "Hiren Roy & Sons' is in itself a history. It is not merely a workshop that manufactures long-necked Indian Lutes (Sitar) but produces instruments that are sensuous and captivating. Hiren Roy & Sons occupy a predominate place in the history of Indian Classical music.

The late Hiren Roy was born in 1920 to a very ordinary family from Bangladesh (now named Pakistan after the partition of India). With little education and a few dreams he arrived in Calcutta with his father. After a short span of struggle and inspired by the Sitar making of Sri Jogesh Chandra Chakrobarty, he decided to learn the fine art. He took Sitar music lessons from Pandit Bimal Kanto Roy Chaudhuri and later from Annapurna Devi and concurrently manufactured and sold his first Sitar for Rs. 80/-, making his dreams come true. With that very money he bought Sitar making equipment and established his shop "Hiren Roy and Sons" in 1943. As it is said, "In dreams begin the responsibility". The reputation of his fabulous craftsmanship began to capture the ears of the Indian Classical music world.

His workshop gradually became a place that welcomed such luminaries as Ustad Allauddin Khan, Annapurna Devi, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Lakshman Bhattacharya, Pandit Manilal Nag, Pandit Ravi Shankar, and Pandit Nikhil Banerjee to name only a few.