Veena:

Nepalese Saraswati holding a Veena.

Image credit: Kaladarshan Arts

Also with a long neck and rounded resonators, the Veena is considered to have ancient origins. However, string instruments of almost all types were called “Veena” in ancient Indian texts and the Veenas played today are the product of several years of history and continue to be modified. Here is a developing discussion on the subject. A distinction is also made between Veenas belonging to the lute and zither families. We shall not get into the technical and historical classifications (and attendant arguments) here, but just try to identify the main types of Veena played today.

Gods and Goddesses are often depicted playing the Veena, particularly the Goddess of learning and the arts, the Goddess Saraswati.  Ravana was also supposed to be a great Veena player.

Some of the main types of Veena played today are: the Rudra Veena (also known as the been or bin), the Saraswati Veena, the Vichitra Veena and the Chitraveena or Gottuvadyam. Veena players are often referred to as Beenkars (or Binkars) or Vainikas.

The wandering sage Narada Muni being given a Veena by Lord Vishnu. Image credit: Sikh Heritage

The Rudra Veena (Been or Bin):

Image credit: tanpura.de

Please note, pictures are only indicative, as various schools of music and musicians add their own modifications.

The Rudra Veena is a large instrument and played by only a few; it almost fell into total obscurity. It is played mostly by instrumentalists from the Dhrupad style. It usually has 21-24 frets. There are four main playing strings and three to four drone strings. At either end of the dandi (the long tubular neck like part) there are two hollow gourds.

Traditionally the Veena was played with the player sitting in the vajrasana posture with his legs folded under him, and one of the two gourds placed on the left shoulder.

Here is Ustad Asad Ali Khan playing the Rudra Veena, holding it with a gourd above his left shoulder:

One of the Rudra Veena’s foremost exponents, (and amongst my favourite musicians) was the late Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar who made his own modifications to the instrument. Ustadji’s alaps (i.e. elaborations of ragas that do not have rhythmic accompaniment, usually performed at the beginning of a piece) on the Rudra Veena were exquisitely slow and detailed. This is the music that caresses one’s soul if one has the patience to let it. Ustadji’s students describe him like his music; tender, gentle, loving and quiet and of great depth.

A clip of Ustadji’s playing an alap on the Rudra Veena in the Raga Yaman:

Note that in the video above Ustadji sits cross-legged and holds the Rudra Veena across his lap and not his shoulder. Ustad Zia Mohiuddin adopted the South Indian or Carnatic style of holding the Veena, which is followed today by his son Baha’uddin Dagar.

In an interview to Deepak Raja, Baha’uddin Dagar speaks of the posture used by his father and the need to tailor make the Rudra Veena according to the waistline of the Beenkar:

My father was the first significant beenkar to shift from the traditional posture to the Carnatic style posture. He had, of course, learnt the Been in the traditional posture, holding it under his right arm, and across his chest. My grandfather probably also played in the traditional posture. My father made the change because the lap-top posture gave him much greater control over the meend [glide from one note to the other]through the in-tandem use of three left-hand fingers, without compromising the impact of the strokes. He found that this was a very valuable asset in the alap, which was his forte. The posture he adopted conformed to the prescription in our scriptures that the top of the stem at the left end should be at the same height as your left shoulder. Therefore, no traditional tenet of Been playing has been breached by the change.

In the early stages, I was taught the Been in the traditional posture, and I have experienced the difference. When you hold the instrument across your chest, your approach to music changes entirely. The melody and the strokes both become more agile, drifting towards the sitar idiom. If you want to play an alap-dominant, soulful quality of music, the lap-top posture works better….

The Vichitra Veena

Image credit: Tarang Indian Instruments

While the Rudra Veena has frets, the Vichitra Veena has none. Apart from the absence of frets, one can recognise a Vichitra Veena by the fact that one of the ends of the dandi will be shaped into a peacock head. The Vichitra Veena is placed on the ground in front of the musician. To play it the musician uses an egg shaped piece of glass (batta) and plectrums on the fingers of one hand. This also a difficult instrument to play. The Vichitra Veena has nine to eleven main strings and eleven to fifteen sympathetic strings. It also has some drone strings. The number of strings and their tuning depends on the artist.

Pandit Lalmani Mishra was a renowned Vichitra Veena player, click on the link below for a video of him playing the instrument:
Pandit Lalmani Misra DVD excerpt

Here is a video of Beenkar Dr. Mustafa Raza playing the Vichitra Veena (look out for the glass egg!):

More about the Vichitra Veena here.

Gottuvadyam or Chitravina

Image Credit: chandrakantha.com

Similar to the Vichitra Veena, is the Gottuvadyam or the Chitravina, played mainly in the South. It too is fretless, and played with a slide and plectrums. Traditionally, the slide was made of wood or bison horn, but today, well known Chitravina exponent N Ravikiran uses a teflon slide. It has twenty-one strings, including playing strings, drone strings and sympathetic strings (the latter are the maximum in number).

Here is a video of a young Chitravina Ravikiran (the name of the instrument often gets attached to the musician’s name in the South) playing the Chitravina/Gottuvadyam:

He plays another version these days, easier to carry around, and easier to tune to higher pitches, called the Navachitravina, that he has designed. Here it is:

There is some argument over which sounds better, the traditional Chitravina or the modified “Nava” version.

Saraswati Veena:

Played mainly in the South, this is perhaps the most popular type of Veena played in India today. The most prized Saraswati Veenas are made in the historic city of Tanjavur, from jackwood and metals. Veenas that are carved out of a single piece of wood are preferred to those that are not. Only one of the gourds acts as a resonator, the second gourd (which rests on the musician’s thigh) may be made of a lighter material. The Saraswati Veena does have frets, unlike the Chitravina/Gottuvadyam. It has four main playing strings and three drone strings.

Image credit: veenvidhya.com

Plectrums are usually worn on the right hand to pluck the strings while the left hand is used to slide on the fretboard and pull the strings.

The close up in the beginning of this video of Vainika Jayanthi Kumaresh demonstrates the playing technique:

That wire you see creeping out of the Veena is a modern addition to increase amplification.

Vocal music is the foundation of Indian classical music. Before the advent of the violin, the Veena was often played to accompany vocal music in the South. There was a great emphasis on the Veena producing the nuances of the human voice (both in the North and the South) and this approach to Veena playing persists.

The Saraswati Veena is held across the lap of the musician (I have read that there were Vainikas who held it upright, indeed Saraswati is often depicted holding the Veena vertical,  but this is not seen nowadays).

There are several well-known Vainikas (youtube has a series on Notable Vainikas). One of the most legendary was the late Veena Dhanammal who played without plectrums. Her style of playing has influenced Vainikas and vocalists alike.

Image credit: The Hindu

It is said that as Dhanammal lay dying:

The family began a continuous round of singing in order to ease her passing. Regaining consciousness briefly, she asked for her veena and when it was placed next to her, embraced it, stating that it was the only thing she regretted being parted from. Her last words were “Muvva Gopala.” That was the signature of Kshetragna whose padams she had made immortal. It was found that her fingers searched for the veena till she passed away…link

More on the Saraswati Veena here.

Related Posts:

• T is for Tanpura not Sitar; it’s Good to Know the Difference
• S is for Sitar and Surbahar
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 13-What’s your frequency? The Tanpura/Tambura and finding your Sur, Shruti or Pitch
• Sa and Pa not always fixed?
• A Question of Variety; Carnatic or Hindustani Music?

I know that for those not interested in music this may be boring. On the other hand it is likely to be boring even for those who are interested in music, because this is very basic. But I hope those who are not interested, or vaguely interested, do read this post and forgive me for being a little obsessive about wanting us to at least recognise the different instruments if not to hear them. There may be concepts that are difficult to understand, if you want, you can explore them further by clicking on the hyperlinks, or just ignore them for the time being and simply get used to what the instruments look like and sound like so you can tell the difference. There are many video clips (hurrah for youtube!) and it’s not necessary to play them for their full length or to play them at all-they are for the purposes of illustration only.

It’s probably not your fault if you don’t know the difference between these instruments-all three look similar, they have many variations (particularly Veenas), and Indian classical music has often been inaccessible to various groups of people; Gender, caste, social status, language, religion, class and education have all acted in complicated ways to exclude people from learning it or knowing about it. Or it may simply be that one just doesn’t know about it, so let me evangelise (imperfectly).

Tanpura or Tambura:

All Indian classical vocalists, of the well-known styles of Indian classical music i.e. the North Indian style of Hindustani music (further subdivided into the quite distinct Dhrupad and Khayal styles) and the South Indian Carnatic style of music are accompanied by a Tanpura or Tambura (there are other less well-known forms of Indian art music that I shall not refer to here). The instrument is called Tanpura in the North and Tambura in the South. Instrumentalists are accompanied by Tanpuras too, though they often use a smaller version called a tanpuri or tamburi.

There are “male” and “female” Tanpuras-female ones can be smaller and they can be tuned to suit male and female voices (the tuning depends on the strings-so a female can use a “male” Tanpura, with strings suitable for her pitch)

Here is a picture of a North Indian Tanpura:

Picture credit: binaswar.com

And here is a picture of a South Indian Tambura:

Picture credit: chandrakantha.com

Though they might look big and heavy, they are actually quite light and quite fragile.

The North (Miraj) and South Indian (Tanjore) versions are constructed slightly differently and produce a slightly different sound though they perform the same function, that is to provide a “drone” to help the musician sing in pitch (sruti). Maintaining sruti, or singing in pitch is very important and therefore the Tanpura is absolutely essential in Indian classical music. Essentially, the Tanpura sings a recurring melody.

Everyone has a natural pitch. When learning Indian classical music, one chooses one’s “Sa,” called adhara shadja, the basic tonic note-every other note is sung relative to this note. Thus maintaining the basic “Sa,” the fixed reference point is very important, and that is what the Tanpura does (this is different to Western music).

Tanpuras usually have four or five strings. The first string is tuned to Pa (the natural fifth from the adhara shadja), the two middle ones are tuned to the higher Sa and the last, which is the bass string, to the tonic, Sa, an octave lower. The tuning of the first string may change, depending on the raga/ragam (e.g. there may be a raga/ragam without Pa) or an extra string that plays the seventh, i.e. Ni, is added, but we will not get into that here.

Nowadays one gets electronic sruti boxes and electronic tamburas that are much easier to carry around, that look like small radios. Though these are very good and have reached high standards, some people (including yours truly) feel that the traditional Tanpuras and Tamburas provide a richer sound and should not be done away with. Learning to tune a Tanpura is also considered essential in training one’s ear. For a technical view on why traditional Tanpuras sound better see this article.

Here is a link to a podcast by the Carnatic musician Vidya Subramaninan and Devesh Satyavolu that explains, very simply, the functions of the shruti box, the electronic tambura and the traditional Tambura. Vidya sings out the notes of the Tambura-this will help in understanding what’s been said above about how it is tuned.

Here is a video where you can see how Tanpuras are played and hear the rich sound of well tuned (North Indian) Tanpuras clearly. The singer is Ustad H. Sayeeduddin Dagar who sings in the Dhrupad style. He starts off here with a Sanskrit chant:

Here is a video of the Khayal singer Ashwini Bhide Deshpande. I’ve chosen this video because you can see her fingers on the Tanpura strings:

And finally, here is a link to a video of a South Indian Tambura being played, that I couldn’t embed here.

A Tanpura is usually held straight up in front of the singer or tanpura accompanist (people can tend to lean it towards their bodies or put it in their laps) or flat down on the floor, whereas a Sitar is usually held diagonally across the body. More on the sitar in the next post.

Updated to add: Here is a video I just found with an explanation of the function of the Tanpura:

Continued: S is for Sitar and Surbahar
V is for Veena

Related Posts:

• V is for Veena
• S is for Sitar and Surbahar
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 13-What’s your frequency? The Tanpura/Tambura and finding your Sur, Shruti or Pitch
• A Question of Variety; Carnatic or Hindustani Music?
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 4-Voices