Eka-tantri Vina

rdf:langString Eka-tantri Vina

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString Saraswati holding an Eka-tantri vina, ca. 1000 C.E.

rdf:langString Eka-tantri vina

rdf:langString Kinnari veena or tingadee

rdf:langString Sarasvati with eka-tantri vina

rdf:langString Sarasvati with fretted Eka-tantri vina

rdf:langString Madras, 1876. Kinnari vina labeled "tingadee." The spike is a bridge, directing string energy to resonator. In later kinnari vinas a third gourd was added in the center, which was pressed into the chest, similar to the alapini vina.

rdf:langString Sarasvati with a fretted kinnari vina, with an apparent makara or yali on the top. Fretted tube-zither vinas are mentioned in literature by 800 C.E., coexisting with the non-fretted vinas. The rudra veena descends from the kinnari veena. The square at the bottom of the instrument is a stylized version of the bridge from the eka-tantri vina.

rdf:langString Eka-tantrī vīṇā at Mukteshvara Temple of Bhubaneswar, ca. 10th century C.E.

rdf:langString India, 10th century C.E. Image of Saraswati holding an eka-tantri vina, a type of tube zither.

rdf:langString Saraswati holding an eka-tantri vina, ca. 1000 C.E. This image clearly shows the bridge which would sustain the string's note and create a buzzing quality.

rdf:langString center

rdf:langString The ālāpiṇī vīṇā, eka-tantri vina and kinnari vina were all mentioned in the 12th-13th century book Sangita Ratnakara by Śārṅgadeva. The 19th-century kinnari vina appears to have traits of both the alapini vina and the eka-tantri vina. The gourd of the kinnari vina pressed into the musician's chest is similar to the alapini vina. The gourd high enough to go over the shoulder is a trait of the eka-tantri vina. Eka-tantri means single string. The alapini vina may have developed into a multi-stringed instrument. The kinnari veena had two strings in the early to mid-19th century; the early 20th century kinnari vina in the Metropolitan Museum of Art has two main strings, and like the rudra veena that came from it, three side strings. The kinnari vina had waxed on frets, and the alapini vina may also have developed frets.

rdf:langString The far-right image shows many details missing from depictions of the eka-tantri vina: the longer length of the instrument, thick tube, the large gourd at the top, the playing style over the shoulder, the stylized mouth at the bottom of the instrument, a bridge on the rectangle just above the mouth.

rdf:langString Development of fretted instrument

rdf:langString Eka-tantrī vīṇā

rdf:langString center

rdf:langString Saraswati holding an Eka-tantri vina, ca. 1000 C.E.jpg

rdf:langString Indian - Sarasvati - Walters 2550.jpg

rdf:langString Sarasvati with fretted Eka-tantri vina.jpg

rdf:langString A 19th century strolling singer musician playing Tingadee instrument, Madras.jpg

rdf:langString Decorations of the Mukteshvara Temple of Bhubaneswar 02.jpg

rdf:langString The eka-tantrī vīṇā was a medieval tube-zither veena in India, with a single string and one or more gourd resonators. The instrument became prominent in Indian music in about the 10th century C.E. as instruments of court music. Alongside the alapini vina and kinnari vina it replaced the harp-style veenas and lute-style veenas in sculpture. It was possibly a forerunner of the rudra vina. It shares its name with the modern single-string drone lute, the ektara. The instrument is very closely related to the one-stringed alapini vina, an instrument which started out a stick zither but became a tube zither like the eka-tantri vina. Although the tube zithers and stick zithers are very similar, it is possible that they have different origins. Early paintings of stick zithers in India date back at least to the 5th century C.E. The earliest currently known stick zither is in the Caves of Ajanta at the end of the 5th century. After a period of assuming that tube zithers spread from India to Southeast Asia, modern scholars have been trying to decide if the tube zithers might have originated in Southeast Asia and spread to India. Whatever the origins, Indian influence on musical culture in Southeast Asia is recorded in the archaeological remains of past civilizations.