chitra veena (Large South Indian fretless Carnatic slide lute)

~ String instrument

Description

13th century or earlier South Indian fretless slide lute used in Carnatic music. Hollow body made of jack-fruit with a secondary resonator of hollowed out gourd, it has 6 main, 3 drone and 11-12 sympathetic strings with a sliding block of hardwood to vary pitch. Much like the North Indian vichitra veena is to the rudra veena, chitra veena is to the Saraswati veena.

Relationships

from:India
used in:carnatic classical
derivations:Hawaiian guitar
part of:veena (Family of ancient Indian lute-like chordophones)
Wikidata:Q15717974 [info]