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Ektara is an Indian Musical instrument, also known as iktar, yaktaro gopichand, ektar, etc, is made with a single string, played traditionally, not only in India, but also in neighboring countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, besides countries like Egypt. It is mostly used by wandering singers, minstrels and bards from India who play the string with a single finger to match sometimes what they are singing as they walk along. The instrument’s single string stretched over an animal skin clad mount made out of dried pumpkin, a kind of guard, wooden ball or a coconut shell, and with a pole neck or bamboo cane neck properly split for the purpose.
In origin, the ektara was a regular string instrument of wandering bards and minstrels from India and is plucked with one finger. The ektara is a drone lute consisting of a gourd resonator covered with skin, through which a bamboo neck is inserted.
Ektara is a single string fixed in a stretched condition, between a ball-like head made out of animal skin bound round objects. This can be a dried gourd or coconut and a pole neck on the other side with a gadget or knob to tighten the string while fixing. While both these ends are held by a split bamboo or seasoned wood which will not break, the player making sound with one finger, while he modulates the sound resonance by applying pressure on the bow like middle portion of the bamboo structure thereby reducing the tightness of the string a little bit, the sound made suitable for the music requirements.
Bengali Ektara, like the Ektara instruments made in few other regions, is made out of a half of a dried gourd shell functioning as the sound-box and a metal string stretching` right through the middle of the shell and at the top, the string is fixed to a knob, which adjusts the tension the of the string.