Thanjavur tunes its wood stock

Thanjavur tunes its wood stock

Subject: History

Sec: Art and culture

Context:

The land is famed for its handcrafted veena, with artisans and their families involved in perfecting the instrument from wood generation after generation.

Thanjavur Veena:

• Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu is famed for being the hub of making veena, an ancient musical instrument.
• Considered to be an abode of the arts, the temple town is famed as the land where the veena is handcrafted.
• The Thanjavur veena is the first musical instrument in the country to get the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
• There are four types of veena. While Rudra veena and Vichitra veena are popular in Hindustani classical music, Saraswati veena and Chitra veena are used in Carnatic classical music.
• Thanjavur is the only place where Saraswati veena is made.
• Saraswathi, the goddess of learning and arts, is portrayed with a veena.
• The production of veena, handcrafted with skill and perfection, requires dedication, time and devotion.
• The work involves making the resonator ( kudam), the neck ( dandi) and a tuning box — the three integral parts of a veena. The process starts with ensuring that the sizing of the wood is accurate.
• Jackfruit wood is used to make veena and the process involves a laborious task, taking up to 15-20 days, to get the finished product. The wood gets cut, intricately carved, shaped, and assembled.
• In the case of ottuveena, the parts are made separately and assembled.
• In the case of ekanthaveena, it gets carved out of one whole piece of wood.

Natya Shastra by Bharat Muni (composed between 200 BC and 200 AD) clubbed musical instruments into four groups: Avanaddha Vadya (membranophones or percussion instruments), Ghan Vadya (idiophones or solid instruments), Sushir Vadya (aerophones or wind instruments), and Tat Vadya (chordophones or stringed instruments). This ancient classification given by Bharat Muni for the musical instruments of India was later adapted in 12th century Europe and used for the classification of the Musical Instruments of Europe. Later, Greek labels were assigned to the four classifications – Chordophones for Tat Vadya, Membranophones for Avanaddha Vadya, Aerophones for Sushir Vadya, and Autophones for Ghan Vadya. Thus, the western system of classification is based on the ancient Indian Natya Shastra.