Chitraveena
चित्रवीणा
The fretless slide veena of Carnatic music, played to follow the singing voice
The chitraveena, or gottuvadyam, is a fretless Carnatic veena with up to 21 strings. The player slides a block along the strings to follow the glides of the voice.
History & Evolution
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 Sakha Rama 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 Sakha Rama 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.
- About 2,000 years ago, in Ravikiran's account
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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. - Early 17th century
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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 Sakha Rama Rao instead. - 19th century
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First concert specialists
Thiruvidaimarudur Srinivasa Rao became the first to specialise in the gottuvadyam and give classical concerts. His son Sakha Rama Rao, noted for his kriti renderings, redesigned it as a seven-string fretless veena, according to Ravikiran's site. - 20th century
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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. - 1980s to present
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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.
Technical Aspects
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.
De weg naar meesterschap
Volg dit gestructureerde traject om deze kunstvorm onder de knie te krijgen
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Holding the slide and finding pitch
Kassebaum names two prerequisites: training in vocal music and close listening to the veena. In the first lessons she stresses coordinating the right-hand pluck with the left-hand slide, to avoid unwanted sound. Practice then turns on hearing pitch exactly and adjusting the gottu, the slide, in fine steps to stay clear of apasvaram.
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Sarali varisai and alankaras
Carnatic study in general opens with graded exercises credited to Purandara Dasa: sarali and janta varisai and the tala alankaras, much of it in the raga (melodic framework) Mayamalavagowla. Simple songs called gitams come next, then varnams, practised at double speed. Kassebaum calls toda mitu very important on the chitraveena. In this stroke the next finger damps the pluck, so the fretless strings do not ring on.
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Gamakas: glides and oscillations
On the chitraveena, Kassebaum writes, the left hand makes ornaments by sliding the gottu and varying its pressure and release. Right-hand strokes shared with the veena, among them gottu mitu and kutra mitu, also shape each phrase. From the beginning she stresses coordination between the plucking hand and the sliding hand, to avoid unwanted sound.
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Kriti Repertoire
Carnatic instrumentalists have no separate repertoire. They play the sung forms, such as kritis, padams and javalis, and improvise from them in raga alapana and svara kalpana. The student learns kritis, the main Carnatic song form, including those of the Trinity: Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri. Kassebaum calls the vocal model essential, and masters of the instrument often sang while they played.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can a beginner, a child or a returning player start learning the chitraveena, the Carnatic slide veena?
Begin the chitraveena with KalaSudha online or in a workshop, at Foundation level. Foundation teaches the gottu, the cylindrical slide held in the left hand, and plucking with plectra on the right index and middle fingers. Children learn with us as well as adults, so ask us about a starting age and about a size for a younger learner.
Players back after a long break pick up where they left off, because our courses run in levels. Your teacher reviews where you stand first.
Have more questions? Contact our support team and we'll be happy to help!