The Hindu : Other States / Rajasthan News : Salil Bhatt creates a new Veena

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Monday, Apr 05, 2004

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Salil Bhatt creates a new Veena

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, APRIL 4. Salil Bhatt, the young Mohan Veena player and son of the legendary musician, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, has created a new version of the Veena to meet the requirements of depth, richness and continuity in his "dynamic style" of rendering the classical ragas. The new Veena has made some significant additions to the original instrument.

Mohan Veena was created by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt -- recipient of Padmashree and winner of Grammy Award -- about three decades ago by introducing major changes in the Hawaiian guitar. Even though there was scepticism in certain quarters about naming it a Veena, it was hailed as a unique discovery in the Indian classical music.

Salil, who has received accolades for his soulful and vibrant music, was finding the Mohan Veena inadequate for the innumerable variations of his `baaz' (style) that assimilates the `gayaki' (vocal) and `tantrakari' (instrumental) representations. He specialises in playing high-speed `taans' demonstrating his skill on Mohan Veena.

"The combinations devised by me in the new Veena enable it to produce the sound which is very rich and deep and has a longer span of continuity," Salil told The Hindu here today. The instrument incorporates the qualities of traditional Veena, sitar and guitar.

The new Veena -- which is yet to be named -- is made of a 100-year-old oak wood and its belly has pine wood to let the sound filter and resonate. "Two f-shaped sound holes are provided to facilitate easy emergence of sound. The fretboard is made of rose wood," Salil said.

The instrument has 19 strings, including three main melody strings, five drone and 12 sympathetic strings. These are strung on wooden tuner keys mounted on the extended pieces of fretboard. The keys are placed on tuning machines which are concealed.

"The position of keys at the head, standing upright, breaks the traditional mould of horizontally placed keys," Salil pointed out. The Veena's head is shaped like a crescent and rises above the plane of the body. Just beneath the head is the `toomba' (gourd) which can be detached and has a hollow sphere to provide base and a better grip when the instrument is played in the lap style.

Salil, who has been playing Mohan Veena for the last 16 years, expressed the hope that the new Veena would help him improve his exposition of the classical Indian ragas and embellish the world music as well. "I will create the purest picture of every raga I play on the new Veena," he said.

The young musician performed on the new instrument at the opening concert of the "Swarna Sangeet Pratibha" festival organised by the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi here on Saturday evening. He represents the tenth generation of the famous Bhatt lineage of classical music artistes and his ancestors had migrated to Jaipur from the Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh.

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