page_title: Saraswati veena
section_title: Contemporary situation
hierarchical_section_title: Saraswati veena / Contemporary situation
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of demonstration of digital veena
context_page_description: The Sarasvati vīṇa is an Indian plucked string instrument. It is named after the Hindu goddess Saraswati, who is usually depicted holding or playing the instrument. Also known as raghunatha veena is used mostly in Carnatic Indian classical music. There are several variations of the veena, which in its South Indian form is a member of the lute family. One who plays the veena is referred to as a vainika.
  The Saraswati veena is one of major types of veena today. The others include chitra veena, vichitra veena and rudra veena. Out of these the rudra and vichitra veenas are used more often in Hindustani music, while the Saraswati veena and the chitra veena are used more frequently in the Carnatic music of South India. They can be used to play either traditional music or contemporary music.
context_section_description: Veena represents the system of Indian music. Several instruments evolved in response to cultural changes in the country. Communities of artists, scholars and craftsmen moved around and at times settled down. Thus Veena craftsmen of Kolkata were famous for their instruments. Similarly, Rudra Veena was given a new form which came to be known after the craftsmen of Tanjavur as Tanjavur Veena. Modern life-style is no longer limited to definite routine within a small locality, thus along with performers and teachers of Veena, the community of craftsmen is also on decline. Attempts to start institutions of instrument-making have been made, but there is a strong need for conservatories which focus on all aspects of Veena. As a state party to UNESCO Convention 2003, India has identified Veena as an element of Intangible Cultural Heritage and proposed its inscription in the Representative list of UNESCO.
  Electronic and Digital veena: Over the years, the acoustic Tanjavur veena (also known as Saraswati veena) has been used in solo and duet concerts in large auditoria. Performers have also been travelling across the globe for concerts. Many practitioners of the art live outside India. The challenges faced by them in using the acoustic veena:
  1. Low sound output (volume) compared to other louder instruments like flute or violin, causing the sound of the veena to be almost inaudible in concerts comprising other instruments along with the veena. This necessitated use of a contact mike (pioneered by Emani Sankara Sastri) or magnetic pickup (pioneered by S.Balachander). Usage of these requires carrying an additional amplispeaker to enable audibility to the performer.
  2. Fragility of the acoustic instrument, causing frequent breakage and damage during travel.
  3. Requirement of re-fretting every year or so, necessitating either carrying the instrument back to India or facilitating the travel and stay overseas, of the skilled artisan from India for this specific purpose.
  
  All these factors led to the creation of the rudimentary electric veena, followed by the electronic veena(1986) and digital veena (2002) by the engineer-flautist G Raj Narayan of Bengaluru.(1971)
  The main characteristics of the electronic veena:
  Enhanced volume, with the amplifier and speaker built into one of the gourds;
  Built-in electronic tambura for sruti in the other removable gourd;
  Matched pick-up and amplispeaker to enable authentic sweet veena sound;
  Adjustable independent volume control for main and taala strings;
  Adjustable frets on a wooden fret board, eliminating the more delicate wax fret board, frets can be adjusted easily by the user;
  Guitar-type keys for easy and accurate tuning;
  Complete portability, as the sound box of the veena is dispensed with, and replaced by a plank of wood. Easy assembly / disassembly;
  Usage on battery in case of AC Mains power failure.
  The electronic veena has gained popularity among users of the instrument. Videos of electronic veena concerts:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qp6dhg3anY;
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgKKxyddXUk;
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8i4PW1z7SE;
  http://musicnagari.com/ladies-tanpurahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv5l0VNopDU
  
  However, this did not solve other issues such as need for repeated retuning while playing, change of strings for playing on higher pitch, mismatch of same note on different strings, etc. This led to the invention of the Digital veena (for which the inventor G Raj Narayan was awarded a patent by the Indian Patent office),demonstrated at the Madras Music Academy in 2002. This is the first synthesiser for Indian music, and its salient features are:
   [[File:digiveena-2013.jpg|thumb]
  Can be used at any pitch without changing strings;
  All four strings and tala strings tuned automatically and perfectly on selection of ANY pitch;
  Selection of PA / MA for mandara panchamam and taala panchamam strings – PA will change to MA on open string but first fret will still be Suddha Dhaivatam;
  String will not change sruti while playing (frequency / sruti will not reduce or increase);
  Gamakam res
caption: Photo of demonstration of digital veena
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