Veena in SriRangam

[Guest guest]

> >Rangarajan's family has been playing for the Lord for 43 generations. Every

> >morning Ranganathanswamy is woken up by a male member of the family playing

> >the veena.>

 

One of the missed news on SriRangam, is the house of a carpenting

craftsman who lives in the the North or South Chittira Street

near the temple. From the Palamaram, he hones out the whole veena.

I visited him in the 70's and have taken slides of the development

of the veena from the tree trunk to a display instrument. What was

striking was his toolkit, ith not a single power tool. The resonator

is carved out and the wall thickenss is half an inch or less.

I am sure the interiror surface irregularities should e minimal and

he had never heard of computer simulation or optimization.

It was one of the most thrilling scenes to have witnessed his

accomplishments. I regret I did not buy an instrument from him,

though it was the only thing my wife wanted from India. My problem

was transportaing it. Later I did buy one in Bangalore but had to

leave it there since the airlines refused to let bring it as

an accompanied baggage.

His family may be doing this for as many generations as the

achraryas of Srirangam.

Krishna Praba

[Guest guest]

On Thu, 27 Feb 1997, krish wrote:

> One of the missed news on SriRangam, is the house of a carpenting

> craftsman who lives in the the North or South Chittira Street

> near the temple. From the Palamaram, he hones out the whole veena.

> I visited him in the 70's and have taken slides of the development

> of the veena from the tree trunk to a display instrument. What was

> striking was his toolkit, ith not a single power tool. The resonator

> is carved out and the wall thickenss is half an inch or less.

> I am sure the interiror surface irregularities should e minimal and

> he had never heard of computer simulation or optimization.

 

Srirangam, Tiruchi and Tanjavur still have some of the best Veena makers

in south India. Of the Veenas I have seen, the interior surface is

extremely rough. The outer surface is made really smooth, with decorative

lines, called "parangikkai keeththu" (stripes like a pumpkin) and

polished. Doing this well is a very difficult art. My guru says that there

are not many artisans today who can make these stripes well nowadays. The

master artisan of this century was one Narayana Asari in Srirangam, but

his sons have not continued in the art.

 

It is my opinion that the thickness of the wood (about half an inch)

results in a lot of acoustic inertia, and the Veena kodam (resonator box)

does not vibrate very well, for all its size. In contrast, the sitar,

which has a seasoned gourd rind as the kodam gives a much more intense

sound. Actually, the thickness and quality of the top-plate are more

important than that of the kodam in determining the intensity and timbre

of the Veena. I feel that the Veena can be much improved if our artisans

learned to optimize the top-plate construction. But I doubt if computer

simulations or power tools are going to help such an effort.

 

One interesting thing that my guru also pointed out to me is that the

south Indian Veena has been purposely designed for suitability in

religious use. Except for the bees-wax used in the fret board, there is

not a single animal product in the Veena. Only metal strings are

used, unlike other stringed instruments which use gut. Thus, the Veena can

be played even inside the garbha-griham of a temple. This is a privilege

that instruments like mridangam and nadaswaram do not enjoy. These other

instruments are usually only allowed in the outer prakarams of the

temples.

> It was one of the most thrilling scenes to have witnessed his

> accomplishments. I regret I did not buy an instrument from him,

> though it was the only thing my wife wanted from India. My problem

> was transportaing it. Later I did buy one in Bangalore but had to

> leave it there since the airlines refused to let bring it as

> an accompanied baggage.

 

To carry a Veena as an accompanied baggage, you might have to end up

buying an extra ticket. Still, the cramped seats and small overhead bins

in most aircraft make me suspect that it would be a problem to transport

carefully as accompanied baggage.

 

Airlines officials can be persuaded to allow Veenas as check-in baggage.

To do this, you must have a sturdy, shock-proof case with a lot of

styrofoam or other packing inside, to protect the Veena. It will be

oversize, and you might have to pay extra for the unusual size of the

item. But you can make use of the extra space in the box to pack clothes,

which will double as additional protection. You also have to pull some

influence, insist that it travel with you on the same aircraft, and if

possible, try to personally oversee the loading of the Veena into the

cargo level. After this, keep praying that there be no damage!

 

When you land, immigration and customs people will ask you unpleasant

questions, because of the shape and size of such a box. I found my name to

be useful when I brought my Veena for the first time to LA. When the

customs man looked inside and said it looked like a sitar, and then

compared the name on my passport to Ravi Shankar, I just kept quiet and

gave a noncommittal smile. I didn't feel like telling him we were not

related!

 

Vidyasankar