BENGALURU: It was chance that landed a 175-year-old veena in P K Srivatsa’s hands. “It was in a house (in Andhra Pradesh’s Bobbili), which was to be sold. We were lucky enough to get it,” says the professor in management who has a doctorate in veena recital.
He was one of the 2,000 vainikas who played at Art of Living’s World Culture Festival. Srivatsa is also the proud owner of a 300-year-old veena which he bought from a royal family, again from Bobbili.
The Bobbili veenas or the Saraswathi veenas are rare and are available only with a few families in Gollapalli that manufacture them. The instruments were even awarded the Geographical Indication tag in 2012. The veenas are traditionally made with jackfruit wood and have strings made of bell metal. They are ekanada veenas — for being carved out of a single log of wood.
“There are four centres for manufacturing veena — Karnataka (Mysuru), Tamil Nadu (Thanjavur), Andhra Pradesh (Bobbili) and Kerala (Thiruvananthapuram). But cities have various innovative designs,” he says. “My 175-year-old instrument has ivory carvings.”
The 300-year-old veena is 5 feet 11 inches, again with exquisite ivory carvings. “Though it is big in size, it is easy to play,” says the vainika. But, with smaller veenas in the market, these larger ones don’t find much favour.
“Every veena has its own purpose,” says Srivatsa. “(Ideally) you need a medium-size veena with good acoustic quality and specific structural qualities.”
He has modified veenas. “My modifications on the instrument were appreciated by T R Subramaniam and Balamuralikrishna.”
Modifications must be done with care, he insists, and lists the factors to be considered: “The structural design, with minimum strain on the wrist; the sustenance of the note; the resonators both primary and secondary and such.”
Srivatsa, taken by the “tonal quality” of the veena, has been a vainika since his childhood. “I learnt from my father who was a disciple of Veena Subbanna. My sister, P K Sreemani, head of computer science and mathematics department at Central College, is my guru now. I evolved my own style by listening to other artistes,” he says.