It has four main strings which are melodic, and three auxiliary drone strings. About 3.5 to 4 feet (1 to 1.2 meters) long to fit the measurements of the musician, it has a hollow body and two large resonating gourds under each end. The North Indian design, used in Hindustani classical music, is a stick zither. The many regional designs have different names such as the Rudra veena, the Saraswati veena, the Vichitra veena and others.
Ancient musical instruments evolved into many variations, such as lutes, zithers and arched harps. The veena, also spelled vina ( IAST: vīṇā), comprises a family of chordophone instruments from the Indian subcontinent. Ĭhitra veena, Mohan veena, Rudra veena, Saraswati veena, Vichitra veena, Sarod, Sitar, Surbahar, Sursingar, Tambouras, Tambura, Instruments using the name have included forms of arched harp and musical bow, lutes, medieval stick zithers and tube zithers, bowed chordophones, fretless lutes, the Hindustani bīn and Sarasvati veena.
Veena has applied to stringed instruments in Indian written records since at least 1000 B.C.E.
