Venu Gopal G warrier

Veena, the queen of all musical instruments and its music has a glorious tradition. The musical instrument is considered to be an ideal one for producing all the subtle gamakas and contours so typical of Indian music. Veena’s evolution is of an interesting study. From the vedic period itself there is a reference to veena in Lekshna Grandhas. Evolution of veena can be traced from the node produced by primitive hunter’s bowstring to harp to yazh to Mahanatana veena to the present day Reghunatha veena with familiar name Saraswathi veena. In its current form the instrument can be attributed to the period of Reghunatha Naika of Tanjore in Tamil Nadu. His master and a great scholar musician Govinda Deekshithar designed and made the fretted veena and it after the ruler. The historic development of concert tradition of veena can be divided into three periods – Ancient, medieval and post trinity period. It was during the....