---
url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-jp/faq/instruments-artforms/what-is-a-mohan-veena'
title: 'What is a mohan veena?'
author:
  name: rajeevk
  url: 'https://kalasudha.com/en-jp/user/4add8741a490747f'
date: '2026-10-19T15:20:22+00:00'
updated: '2026-10-28T01:09:04+00:00'
type: website
summary: 'The mohan veena is a slide guitar for raga, with about 19 to 21 strings and a gourd behind the neck.'
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 FAQ · Instruments & artforms

# What is a mohan veena?

 Updated 28 October 2026

 

The mohan veena is a form of **[Indian slide guitar](/en-jp/instrument/indian-slide-guitar)** with drone and sympathetic strings added to a guitar. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, a renowned player with his own style, plays the mohan veena he designed. It carries about 19 to 21 strings: three or four melody strings, four or five chikari and 12 sympathetic strings tuned from the side of the neck, with a gourd behind the neck. Premier Guitar says it began as an archtop brought from West Germany, while programme notes from the Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler Galleries say his first instrument was adapted from a Spanish guitar.



 

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## Related pages

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###  Instruments (1) 

- [   Indian Slide Guitar The Indian slide guitar is a lap-held guitar played with a slide and tuned for raga. Brij Bhushan Kabra brought it into raga music, and sympathetic strings…     ](/en-jp/instrument/indian-slide-guitar)
 
  

 

 

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