In a modest workshop filled with the scent of seasoned wood, 78-year-old Ghulam Mohammad Zaz continues a craft his family has preserved for eight generations: handcrafting the Kashmiri santoor, a hundred-stringed zither central to the region’s musical identity.
“Seven generations have worked, and I am the eighth; I have no guarantee anyone after me will do this work,” Zaz said softly in Kashmiri. Once, multiple family members practiced the craft in the heart of Srinagar, but today Zaz is the last artisan in the city producing the instrument entirely by hand. Each santoor, made with careful selection of wood and painstaking strikes and polishing, takes months to complete and sells for around 50,000 rupees ($565).
The santoor has been a cornerstone of Kashmir’s “sufiana musiqi,” the mystical music tradition that has long distinguished the Muslim-majority region culturally. Musicians from Iran historically traveled to Kashmir to play the instrument, singing in Persian while locals adapted the santoor into their musical repertoire. In the 20th century, Indian classical musician Shivkumar Sharma popularized the santoor nationwide, bringing it out of local gatherings and into classical music circles across India.
Yet tradition faces challenges as Western instruments and global music trends increasingly dominate. “A lot of our traditional Kashmiri instruments became sidelined,” said Muzaffar Bhat, a music professor at a government college in Anantnag. For artisans like Zaz, this has meant fewer patrons, students, and a gradual decline of a centuries-old family profession.
Despite these pressures, there are signs of a modest revival. Zaz continues to sell instruments locally, while receiving orders from Europe and the Middle East. Bhat notes that younger generations are beginning to learn traditional Kashmiri instruments, offering hope that the santoor and its unique musical heritage may survive.
“Since the last few years, a new trend has started,” Bhat said. “Our youngsters have started to learn our traditional instruments.”
