Veena

The Veena (Sanskrit: वीणा, IAST: vīṇā), also spelled as Vina or Beena or Bina, is a multi stringed chordophone of the Indian subcontinent. It is an ancient musical instrument that evolved into many variations, such as sitar, lutes, zithers and arched harps. The many regional designs have different names such as the Rudra veena, the Saraswati veena, the Mohan veena and others. The South Indian Veena design, used in classical Carnatic music, is a lute. It is a long-necked, pear-shaped lute, but instead of the lower gourd of the north Indian design it has a pear shaped wooden piece. It too, however, has 24 frets, four melody strings, three drone strings, and played quite similar. It remains an important and popular string instrument in classical Carnaticbmusic.

As a fretted, plucked lute, the Veena strings can produce pitches in full three octave range.The long hollow neck design of these Indian instruments allow portamento effects and legato ornaments found in Indian ragas. It has been a popular instrument in Indian classical music, and one revered in the Indian culture by its inclusion in the iconography of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of arts and learning.These continue to be used, albeit with different designs, in Carnatic classical music and Hindustani classical music.