Vidushi Sharan Rani was famous for playing which instrument?

Explanation

Sharan Rani Backliwal (1929-2008) was one of the first women to become a professional sarod player in India. She was often called the "Sarod Rani" (Queen of the Sarod) and is remembered as a pioneer for women in Hindustani instrumental music.

Sharan Rani was born in Delhi, into a well-known family. At a time when it was unusual for a young woman from a respected family to perform music in public, she learnt Kathak dance and then the sarod, first from Ustad Allauddin Khan of Maihar and later from his son, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. She performed in many countries and was one of the first Indian instrumentalists to tour widely abroad as a cultural ambassador. She was also a scholar of music. She built up a large collection of rare Indian musical instruments, some of them centuries old, and donated it to the National Museum in New Delhi in 1980, where it is displayed in a gallery named after her. She also wrote a book on the history of the sarod. She received the Padma Shri (1968) and the Padma Bhushan (2000).

The sarod is a fretless stringed instrument of Hindustani classical music. It has a smooth metal fingerboard, a wooden body covered with goatskin, and many strings, including sympathetic strings. It is played by plucking the strings with a plectrum made of coconut shell or polished bone, while the fingers of the left hand slide along the metal fingerboard. The sarod developed from the Afghan rabab. Famous sarod players include Ustad Allauddin Khan, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Buddhadev Das Gupta and Zarin Sharma (also known as Zarin Daruwala).

Why not the other options?

• ✗Sitar is linked with players such as Ravi Shankar and Annapurna Devi's student Nikhil Banerjee.

Veena is linked with Carnatic players such as S. Balachander and Jayanthi Kumaresh.

Sarangi is linked with players such as Ram Narayan and Sultan Khan.