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.
Historical Timeline
Accounts of the chitraveena's age differ. Kassebaum, following the musicologist P. Sambamoorthy, places its origin in South India about four centuries ago, while the lineage of N. Ravikiran traces it about 2,000 years back. Kassebaum, again after Sambamoorthy, reads an older name, mahanataka vina, as a sign that it once accompanied music-drama and dance-drama. Two readings of gottuvadyam (also gottuvadhyam, gotuvadyam) are on record: Kassebaum derives it from the Tamil kodu, a stick, and Ravikiran's site reads gottu as the slide and vadyam as instrument.
Padams, slow and expressive songs, have long belonged to its repertoire. Thiruvidaimarudur Srinivasa Rao excelled in the padams of Ghanam Krishna Iyer, and his son Sakharama Rao taught Gottuvadyam Narayana Iyengar and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. Narayana Iyengar learnt padams from Veena Dhanammal and made 78 rpm recordings in the 1930s. The Sangeet Natak Akademi records that Budalur Krishnamurthy Sastrigal also learnt from Sakharama Rao. Kassebaum's 1988 list of past and present players adds Mannargudi K. Savitri Ammal, A. Narayana Iyer, Allam Koteswara Rao and M. V. Varahaswamy.
A contested Natya Shastra link
Ravikiran's lineage identifies the instrument with a seven-string vina in Bharata's Natya Shastra, played with the fingers and a cylindrical piece called kona. Kassebaum, after Sambamoorthy, places its origin only about four centuries ago, so the link stays contested.
First recorded name
Sambamoorthy, as reported by Kassebaum, finds the name as gottivadyam or kotti vadyam in Sringara Savitri, a Telugu poem by Raghunatha Nayak. Ravikiran's site credits the name to Sakharama Rao instead.
First concert specialists
Thiruvidaimarudur Srinivasa Rao became the first to specialise in the gottuvadyam and give classical concerts. His son Sakharama Rao, noted for his kriti renderings, redesigned it as a seven-string fretless veena, according to Ravikiran's site.
Two schools of stringing
Gottuvadyam Narayana Iyengar added melody strings and twelve sympathetic strings, later settling at 21. Budalur Krishnamurthy Sastrigal, who won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1958, kept eight strings and did not favour sympathetic strings.
The chitravina name returns
The Sangeet Natak Akademi credits N. Ravikiran, grandson of Narayana Iyengar, with reviving the name chitravina. He also patented the navachitravina, a variant tuned to B or C, and his site describes pickups used with microphones for large audiences.
Playing Techniques
String Configuration
In the Narayana Iyengar lineage, six melody strings run in groups of three, two and one, tuned to the tonic Sa, the fifth Pa and their lower octaves. Three side drone strings mark the rhythm, and eleven or twelve optional sympathetic strings, which ring without being plucked, sit on a second bridge. Schools tune them to the raga or to all twelve pitches. The traditional instrument is usually pitched at G sharp.
The Slide Mechanism
The right index and middle fingers pluck the melody strings and the little finger sounds the drones, and the left hand slides the gottu. The Saraswati veena has 24 frets and ornaments notes by pulling the string. Because the chitraveena is stopped by sliding, it can be tuned high to match a singer, with its strings at higher tension.
Body and Materials
A hemispherical main resonator joins a hollow stem about 32 inches long, both usually of jackfruit wood with a flat top. A second resonator at the far end of the stem is by tradition a dried gourd, or else wood, metal or fibreglass. Wooden pegs hold the melody strings.
Journey to Mastery
Follow this structured journey to master this discipline
Holding the slide and finding pitch
Sarali varisai and alankaras
Gamakas: glides and oscillations
Kriti Repertoire
Related Disciplines
Past Performances
Featured Artists
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