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Veena in SriRangam

From the Bhakti List Archives

krish • February 27, 1997 


> >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