Springtime of Notes)[1] sometimes known as bass sitar, is a plucked string instrument used in the Hindustani classical music of the Indian subcontinent.

The instrumentalist plays the strings using a plectrum of bent steel wire, the mizrab, which is fixed on the index finger of the player's right hand.

Three plectrums are used on the first three fingers to play the dhrupad style of alap, jor, and jhala on surbahar.

The development of the surbahar was due in part to the desire to play in a lower range similar to that of the veena.

Recent research shows that Lucknow-based sitarist Ustad Ghulam Mohammed may also have been the inventor.