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Vīnā
The ''veena'', also spelled ''vina'' ( IAST: vīṇā), is any of various chordophone instruments from the Indian subcontinent. Ancient musical instruments evolved into many variations, such as lutes, zithers and arched harps.Vina: Musical Instrument
Encyclopædia Britannica (2010)
The many regional designs have different names such as the '' Rudra veena'', the '''', the '''' and others. The North Indian ''rudra veena'', used in



Pinaka Vina
The ''pināka vīnā'' ( pinnak + veena) was an Indian musical instrument, a musical bow that was itself played with a bow. It has also been transliterated ''pinaki vina'' and ''pinak''. It appeared similar to the rudra veena (also called "''bīn''" or "''been''"), with a long bar held over the musician's shoulder and resting on the ground, with large gourds attached at each end for resonators. However, where the ''rudra veena'' has multiple strings and frets, the pinaka vina had only one string made of wire and no frets. Where the ''rudra veena'' was a stick zither (with a straight and rigid bar for the instrument's body), the ''pinaka vīnā'' was a musical bow (its body a long stick turned up at each end). The instrument was sounded with a bow. The musician chose notes with a stick held against the strings, able to slide it up and down on the string, in the same way a bottle slides on a slide guitar's strings. File:Ragaputra Sarang painting, from Bundi, showing "The Di ...
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Rudra Veena
The ''rudra veena'' () (also spelled ''rudraveena'' or ''rudra vīnā'') — also called the ''bīn'' in North India — is a large plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music, especially dhrupad. It is one of the major types of '' veena'' played in Indian classical music, notable for its deep bass resonance. Oral tradition ascribes the instrument to Shiva, the principal deity within Hinduism. The rudra veena is seen in temple architecture predating the Mughals. It is also mentioned in court records as early as the reign of Zain-ul Abidin (1418–1470), and attained particular importance among Mughal court musicians. Before Independence, rudra veena players, as dhrupad practitioners, were supported by the princely states; after Independence and the political integration of India, this traditional patronage system ended. With the end of this traditional support, dhrupad's popularity in India declined, as did the popularity of the rudra veena. However, in recent year ...
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Ancient Veena
The ancient veena is an early Indian arched harp, not to be confused with the modern Indian veena which is a type of lute or stick zither. Names of specific forms of the arched harp include the ''chitra vīṇā'' with seven strings, the ''vipanchi vīṇā'' with nine strings and the ''mattakokila vīṇā'' a harp or possibly board zither with 21 strings. The instrument is attested on a gold coin of the Gupta Empire from the mid-300s CE. The instrument was also illustrated in the oldest known Saraswati-like relief carvings, from Buddhist archaeological sites dated to 200 BCE, where she holds a harp-style veena. Generic meaning of veena The Sanskrit word ''veena'' (वीणा ''vīṇā'') which is attested already in the Rigveda has designated in the course of Indian history a variety of instruments of various types, as it is a generic term for all kinds of string instruments, just as the Tamil language, Tamil word ''yazh'' (யாழ் ''yaaḻ''). In the last centuries a ...
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Saraswati Veena
The Sarasvatī vīṇa (also spelled Saraswati veena) (, , , Malayalam: സരസ്വതി വീണ) is an ancient Indian plucked veena. It is named after the Hindu goddess Saraswati, who is usually depicted holding or playing the instrument. Also known as ''raghunatha veena,'' it is used mostly in Carnatic Indian classical music. There are several variations of the veena, which in its South Indian form is a member of the lute family. One who plays the veena is referred to as a ''vaiṇika''. The Saraswati veena is one of 4 major types of veena today. The others include chitra veena, vichitra veena and rudra veena. Out of these the rudra and vichitra veenas are used more often in Hindustani music, while the Saraswati veena and the chitra veena are used more frequently in the Carnatic music of South India. They can be used to play either traditional music or contemporary music. History The veena has a recorded history that dates back to approximately 1700 BCE. In anci ...
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Shri Nilotpala Nayike, Rendered On The Veena By L Ramakishnan
Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Assamese, Meitei ( Manipuri), Marathi, Malay (including Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanese, Balinese, Sundanese, Sinhalese, Thai, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Assamese, Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali, Nepali, Malayalam, Kannada, Sanskrit, Pali, Khmer, and also among Philippine languages. It is usually transliterated as ''Sri'', ''Sree'', ''Shri'', ''Shiri'', ''Shree'', ''Si'', or ''Seri'' based on the local convention for transliteration. In Tamil it evolved to Tiru. The term is used in Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia as a polite form of address equivalent to the English "Mr." in written and spoken language. "Shri" is also used as a title of veneration for deities or as honorific title for individuals. "Shri" is also an epithet for Hindu goddess Lakshmi, while a ''yantra'' or a mystical d ...
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IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during the 19th century from suggestions by Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet, Charles Trevelyan, William Jones (philologist), William Jones, Monier Monier-Williams and other scholars, and formalised by the Transliteration Committee of the Geneva International Congress of Orientalists, Oriental Congress, in September 1894. IAST makes it possible for the reader to read the Indic text unambiguously, exactly as if it were in the original Indic script. It is this faithfulness to the original scripts that accounts for its continuing popularity amongst scholars. Usage Scholars commonly use IAST in publications that cite textual material in Sanskrit, Pāḷi and other classical Indian languages. IAST is also used for major e-text repos ...
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Chordophone
In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play some string instruments, like Guitar, guitars, by plucking the String (music), strings with their fingers or a plectrum, plectrum (pick), and others by hitting the strings with a light wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow (music), bow, like Violin, violins. In some keyboard (music), keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord, the musician presses a key that plucks the string. Other musical instruments generate sound by striking the string. With bowed instruments, the player pulls a rosined horsehair bow across the strings, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician cranks a wheel whose rosined edge touches the strings. Bowed instruments include the string section instruments of the orchestra in Western classic ...
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Indian Subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. (subscription required) Although the terms "Indian subcontinent" and "South Asia" are often also used interchangeably to denote a wider region which includes, in addition, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the "Indian subcontinent" is more of a geophysical term, whereas "South Asia" is more geopolitical. "South Asia" frequently also includes Afghanistan, which is not considered part of the subcontinent even in extended usage.Jim Norwine & Alfonso González, ''The Third World: states of mind and being'', pages 209, Taylor & Francis, 1988, Quote: ""The term "South Asia" also signifies the Indian Subcontinent""Raj S. Bhopal, ''Ethnicity, race, and health in multicultural societies'', pages 33, Oxford University Press, 2007, ; Q ...
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Zither
Zither (; , from the Greek ''cithara'') is a class of stringed instruments. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body. Zithers are typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers or a plectrum. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, the term refers to a larger family of similarly shaped instruments that also includes the hammered dulcimer family and piano and a few rare bowed instruments like the bowed psaltery, bowed dulcimer, and streichmelodion. Like an acoustic guitar or lute, a zither's body serves as a resonating chamber ( sound box), but, unlike guitars and lutes, a zither lacks a distinctly separate neck assembly. The number of strings varies, from one to more than fifty. In modern usage the term "zither" usually refers to three specific instruments: the concert zither (), its variant the Alpine zither (each of which uses a fretted fingerboard), and the chord zither (more recently described as a ...
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Lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" commonly refers to an instrument from the Family (musical instruments), family of History of lute-family instruments, European lutes which were themselves influenced by India, Indian short-necked lutes in Gandhara which became the predecessor of the Islamic music, Islamic, the Sino-Japanese and the Early music, European lute families. The term also refers generally to any necked string instrument having the strings running in a plane parallel to the Sound board (music), sound table (in the Hornbostel–Sachs system). The strings are attached to pegs or posts at the end of the neck, which have some type of turning mechanism to enable the player to tighten the tension on the string or loosen the tension before playing (which respectively ...
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Tanpura
The tanpura (; also referred to as tambura, tanpuri, tamboura, or tanpoura) is a long-necked, plucked, four-stringed instrument originating in the Indian subcontinent, found in various forms in Indian music. Visually, the tanpura resembles a simplified sitar or similar lute-like instrument, and is likewise crafted out of a gourd or pumpkin. The tanpura does not play a melody, but rather creates a meditative ambience, supporting and sustaining the performance of another musician or vocalist, as well as for musicians accompanying a dance performance. The instrument's four strings are tuned to specific notes of a given scale or musical key, normally the fifth (''Pa''; Solfège, “So”) and the root tonic (''Sa''; “Do”). The strings are generally tuned 5-8-8-1. One of the three strings tuned to the tonic is thus an octave below the others, adding greater resonance and depth to the ambient drone. Through continuous, rhythmic plucking of its strings, the tanpura creates ...
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