The sārangī is a bowed, short-necked string instrument from South Asia which is used in Hindustani classical music. It is said to most resemble the sound of the human voice – able to imitate vocal ornaments such as gamaks (shakes) and meends (sliding movements).
There are different versions for the meaning and origins of "sarangi" The word "sarangi" could be a combination of two sanskrit words: "saar" (summary) and "ang" (form, herein different styles of playing instrumental music for e.g. "gayaki ang") hence meaning the instrument that can summarize every style of music or playing."Sarang" in fact has a number of meanings in Sanskrit.