Veenaवीणा

The Saraswati veena is a long-necked plucked lute with fixed frets and the principal veena of Carnatic music, named for the goddess Saraswati. Its main resonator is hollowed from jackfruit wood, and its 24 brass or bell-metal frets sit in a ridge of beeswax on the neck. Four playing strings pass over the frets, and three drone strings, the talam, run beside the neck.

The sitar of Hindustani music differs: its resonator is a gourd, its arched frets are tied on rather than set in wax, and it carries sympathetic strings, which the Saraswati veena does not.

Learn the 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 run in levels. Your teacher first reviews where you stand.

You can buy a veena from KalaSudha outside India: we sell it by quote or made to order, and we deliver worldwide. Your veena leaves us packed for international shipping, and we can advise on cases and insurance.

We service and repair any veena, in any country, including one you bought elsewhere. You can order strings and spare parts from us as well. For help with your veena after it arrives, use the chat on any page or write to [email protected]. Ask us about gift vouchers and class sets for schools too, or a flight case for travel.

Hand-made Saraswati veena production is concentrated in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, where workshops hollow the main resonator from jackwood sourced from Panruti. The Thanjavur veena received Geographical Indication status around 2012 to 2013 and is described as India's first musical instrument with GI status. In 2024 Thanjavur had about 10 full-time makers, producing around 30 instruments a month.

A Saraswati veena has seven strings and no sympathetic strings. Four main playing strings pass over the frets, and three drone strings, the talam, run from pegs on the side of the neck over a small curved bridge beside the main bridge. All seven are steel in common practice, though one craft source gives brass for the two lowest playing strings.

The Saraswati veena has 24 fixed frets of brass or bell-metal, set into a ridge of beeswax mixed with charcoal or lamp-black on the neck. The fixed 24-fret form evolved at Thanjavur during Raghunatha Nayak's reign, and Sambamurthy credits the design to Govinda Dikshita; earlier veenas had fewer, movable frets. Because the frets sit in wax, they can shift and need resetting by a maker.

A Saraswati veena player sits cross-legged, with the small upper resonator on the left thigh and the main resonator on the floor beyond the right thigh. The right index and middle fingers pluck the main strings, and the little finger strikes the drone strings. The left hand stops the strings on the frets and pushes them sideways to raise the pitch, creating slides and gamaka.

The Saraswati veena descends from earlier lute forms, the kinnari veena in Sambamurthy's account. Its fixed 24-fret form evolved at Thanjavur during the reign of Raghunatha Nayak, and Sambamurthy credits the design to Govinda Dikshita, a minister at the court. Earlier veenas had fewer frets, and those frets were movable.

Players who shaped it include Veena Dhanammal, S. Balachander and Emani Sankara Sastry, and the Karaikudi Brothers among the masters of its banis.

The Saraswati veena is a Carnatic lute, with a jackwood body and 24 frets fixed in wax, and it descends from earlier lute forms. The Rudra veena of Hindustani music is a zither. Players of both push strings sideways on the frets to raise the pitch, up to a fifth on the Rudra veena, so that technique does not separate the two.

An ekanda Saraswati veena has its resonator, neck and head carved from one block of wood; an ottu veena, also called sada or khanda, joins parts made separately. Retail and museum sources treat the ekanda as the higher grade. Makers hollow the main resonator from jackfruit wood, favouring trees of about 40 to 50 years.

Through KalaSudha you can book a veena player for a concert, event or recording. In a Carnatic concert the veena plays solo with mridangam. Ask us through our page to book Indian classical musicians, and hear our artists before you decide in KalaSudha's recordings and concert videos.

Well-known veena players include Veena Dhanammal (1867 to 1938), whose individual style is a benchmark of traditional playing, and Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer and his brother Subbarama Iyer, the Karaikudi Brothers. The composer Muthuswami Dikshitar also played it.

In the 20th century S. Balachander (1927 to 1990) took the veena to international audiences, and Emani Sankara Sastry widened its concert vocabulary.

The Saraswati veena of Carnatic music has fixed frets set in wax and no sympathetic strings. The sitar of Hindustani music has 19 to 23 movable, curved frets and 11 to 13 sympathetic strings that ring with the raga.

The bodies differ too: the veena's main resonator is hollowed from jackwood, the sitar's is a dried gourd. On its fixed frets a veena player pushes the string sideways for gamaka, while a sitarist pulls it across a fret for meend.