--- url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-int/instrumental/carnatic-classical/veena' title: 'Veena: fretted lute of Carnatic music' author: name: Anonymous updated: '2026-10-31T16:29:34+00:00' type: website summary: 'The Saraswati veena is the main plucked instrument of Carnatic music, named for the goddess of music. It is a jackwood lute with seven strings and 24 frets.' tags: - 'Carnatic Classical' image: 'https://files.kalasudha.com/styles/d12_standard/public/2026-02/Veena-Instrument-KalaSudha.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=1EIAdVOt' published: true og: site_name: KalaSudha 'image:url': 'https://files.kalasudha.com/styles/d12_standard/public/2026-02/Veena-Instrument-KalaSudha.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=1EIAdVOt' 'image:secure_url': 'https://files.kalasudha.com/styles/d12_standard/public/2026-02/Veena-Instrument-KalaSudha.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=1EIAdVOt' 'image:type': image/jpeg 'image:width': '1200' 'image:height': '675' 'image:alt': Veena-Instrument --- Specific Discipline # Veena वीणा The 24-fret lute of Carnatic music, named for the goddess Saraswati Saraswati's Instrument GI-registered Thanjavur craft The Saraswati veena is the 24-fret plucked lute of Carnatic music, with a jackwood body and seven strings, named after Saraswati, goddess of learning and music. [ Explore Courses ](/en-int/courses?discipline=105) [ Show interest ](/en-int/instrumental/carnatic-classical/veena/show-interest) [Sign in to follow](/en-int/user/login?flag_anon=follow_term-105&destination=/en-int/markdownify/taxonomy/term/105) [ Share ](/en-int/share/term/105) ## Overview The **Saraswati veena** is a long-necked, fretted lute with seven strings, the main plucked string instrument of [Carnatic](/en-int/instrumental/carnatic-classical) (South Indian classical) music, named after Saraswati, the goddess of learning, speech and music. Also spelt vina, it is known as the **Thanjavur (Tanjore) veena** after the court town where its present form took shape under the Nayaka rulers of the 17th century. About four feet (1.2 metres) long, the instrument has a large resonator hollowed from jackwood. A player sits cross-legged with the veena across the lap, plucking with the right hand and stopping the strings on **24 fixed frets** with the left. Its musical identity rests on **gamaka**, the ornamenting of a note by oscillating or bending its pitch, which gives each raga (melodic framework) its character. Learners follow the shared Carnatic path: graded exercises first, then varnams and kritis from the vocal repertoire, then improvisation. The Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's national academy for music, dance and drama, gives awards in Carnatic instrumental music with the veena as a category of its own. The name veena also covers other instruments, each with its own page: the [chitraveena](/en-int/instrumental/carnatic-classical/chitraveena) of Carnatic music, and the [rudra veena](/en-int/instrumental/hindustani-classical/rudra-veena) and vichitra veena of Hindustani music. Part of **Carnatic Classical**: Carnatic instrumental music is South Indian classical music played on veena, violin, flute and mridangam. Instrumentalists play the same songs as singers, in a singing style. ### Quick Facts Also Known As Saraswati veena, Thanjavur (Tanjore) veena, vina Construction Jackwood body, 24 fixed frets, 7 strings (4 melody, 3 drone) Sacred Association Goddess Saraswati Key Technique Gamaka: bending a note's pitch by pulling the string across the fret ## History & Evolution The word is far older than the instrument. Sanskrit **vina** appears in Vedic texts and gives **vainika**, the word for a veena player. In early usage it covered stringed instruments in general. Early Indian sculpture shows harp-like, seven-stringed and single-string veenas. One study of the iconography traces a change in the instrument Saraswati holds, from a harp-like vipanchi in a 6th-century Nalanda bronze to the Thanjavur lute, which late 19th-century paintings by Ravi Varma and the calendar art that followed made her standard attribute. The present form took shape at the court of **Thanjavur** in the early 17th century, in the reign of Raghunatha Nayaka, himself a veena player. Earlier veenas carried fewer than twenty movable frets; the Thanjavur design fixed 24, twelve to the octave. Sources credit it to Raghunatha, to his minister Govinda Dikshita, or to both. A Press Information Bureau feature, drawing on S. Krishnaswami's Musical Instruments of India (1993), says that fixing the frets opened the way for the **72-melakarta** scheme of raga classification, which Govinda Dikshita's son Venkatamakhin set out in the Chaturdandi Prakasika. Vedic period ### The word vina The Sanskrit word vina already appears in Vedic prose, in the Taittiriya Samhita and the Shatapatha Brahmana. Monier-Williams's Sanskrit dictionary cites both texts for the word and marks its derivation as doubtful. Up to the 12th century ### Frets appear in temple sculpture Accounts differ on when frets first appear in sculpture. A 2023 Open magazine feature says early veenas were fretless, with the first fretted image at a 12th-century Belur temple. The scholar Ragini Trivedi sees frets earlier, at Ajanta and the Harshat Mata temple, Abhaneri. 17th - 19th Century ### Thanjavur court and its treatises Nayaka and then Maratha rulers of Thanjavur patronised music. Tradition credits Raghunatha Nayaka with the Sangita Sudha; Venkatamakhin wrote the Chaturdandi Prakasika and Tulaja Maharaja the Sangita Saramrita. That milieu shaped Muttuswami Dikshitar (1775-1835), born in Thanjavur district and trained in veena playing. 20th century to present ### Modern Era Indian government sources name Veena Dhanammal, the Karaikudi brothers, Emani Sankara Sastri and S. Balachander among the notable 20th-century players. Since 2013 Thanjavur Veenai (Tanjore Veena) has been a registered Geographical Indication, protecting the name for instruments made around Thanjavur. ## Technical Aspects ### Fret and Gamaka System The hollow neck (dandi) carries **24 fixed frets** (mettu) of metal, usually brass, set in hardened beeswax mixed with charcoal. The player raises pitch by pulling a string sideways across a fret, which tightens it; slides and finger flicks add further ornaments. A Press Information Bureau feature summarises C. V. Raman's view that the curved frets and string ends give the player continuous control of string tension. ### String Configuration The veena carries **seven steel strings**. Four run over the frets and carry the melody. Three drone strings, the **talam strings**, run at the side of the neck; the little finger of the right hand strikes them to sound the reference pitch (sruti) and mark the rhythm (laya). ### Jackwood Resonator Makers hollow the large round resonator (**kudam**) from jackwood and carve the tuning end as a yali, a lion-faced mythical creature. They carve an **ekantha** veena from a single block and build an ottu or sada veena from jointed pieces. The small resonator under the neck (sorakkai) began as a gourd and today comes in papier-mache or fibre. ## Journey to Mastery Follow this structured journey to master this discipline 1. 1 ### Posture and plucking Sit cross-legged with the veena almost level across the lap, the small resonator on the left thigh and the main body on the floor beyond the right. The left arm passes under the neck to stop the strings on the frets. The right palm rests on the edge of the body; the index and middle fingers pluck the main strings and the little finger plays the drones. 2. 2 ### Sarali varisai, janta varisai and alankarams Carnatic training starts with sarali varisai: basic note patterns in the lower and upper registers at three speeds, as in the CBSE vocal syllabus. Janta varisai then drill paired notes, and sapta tala alankarams set patterns to seven talas (rhythmic cycles). Geetams, simple learning songs that Purandara Dasa created to introduce talas, come next. 3. 3 ### Gamaka and Ornamentation This stage covers the named gamakas. Kampitam swings a note between two neighbouring pitches; jaru glides from one note to another. Lists of gamakas vary, and one Carnatic glossary counts more than ten types. In Class XI the CBSE syllabus for Carnatic melodic instruments asks students to produce the important gamakas of their chosen instrument. 4. 4 ### Repertoire Development Instrumentalists learn the vocal repertoire. The CBSE syllabus for Carnatic melodic instruments sets an Adi tala varnam in two speeds, kritis, a jatiswaram and a swarajati in Class X; more Adi tala varnams and kritis or kirtanas in Adi, Rupaka and Chapu talas in Class XI; and an Ata tala varnam with tillanas in Class XII. Students also tune their instrument and describe its construction and history. 5. 5 ### Performance and Improvisation Manodharma sangeetam, the improvised side of Carnatic music, covers raga alapana, tanam (rhythmic elaboration of the raga, by tradition without percussion), neraval (melodic variation on one line of a composition's text) and kalpana swaram (improvised note passages that return to the composition). These culminate in ragam-tanam-pallavi. CBSE students at this stage play brief alapanas, kalpana swaras at two speeds and a simple pallavi in three speeds. ## Frequently Asked Questions How can a beginner, a child or a returning vainika start learning the Saraswati veena of Carnatic music? Learn the [veena](/en-int/instrumental/carnatic-classical/veena) with KalaSudha online or in a workshop, starting at **Foundation** level. In the first lessons you pluck the main strings with the right index and middle fingers and strike the talam drone strings with the little finger. Children are as welcome as adults: ask us about a starting age and about a size for a younger learner. Players returning to the veena after a long break start again where they left off, because our [courses](/en-int/courses) run in levels. Your teacher first reviews where you stand. Have more questions? Contact our support team and we'll be happy to help! Stay close ## Keep KalaSudha close. Receive news of concerts, learning opportunities, recordings and the work taking shape at KalaSudha. - Concert news - ·Learning opportunities - ·Recordings and stories We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time.