The rudra vina (see [Fig. 14b]) is composed of a pear-shaped body of thin wood, hollowed out of the solid; wooden belly; four principal metal strings passing over twenty-four frets and three shorter wires placed at the side of the finger-board; also a single detachable burra, or hollow gourd, fastened to the under-side of the neck, near the head, to increase the volume of sound. In the method of playing it differs from that of other Indian musical instruments, the left hand being employed to stop the strings on the frets, whilst the fingers, or rather the finger-nails, of the right hand are used, without plectra, for striking. The bîn, or mahali vina, differs from the rudra vina in shape and in method of playing. Two large gourd-resonators replace the wooden body with its small burra; the side strings are placed two on the left
side and one upon the right; the frets vary from nineteen to twenty-two in number; and in playing, the two first fingers of the right hand are armed with wire plectra.
The sârangi, or the common fiddle of Southern India ([Fig. 14c]) has a wooden body hollowed out of a single block, a parchment belly, three strings of thick gut, and usually fifteen sympathetic strings of wire, tuned chromatically. Sometimes a fourth principal string of wire, called luruj, is added. It is played with a bow, the instrument being held vertically, head uppermost; the tone resembling that of the viola. The sârangi of Northern India, usually carved with a conventional swan-shaped head, has a rounded body, and possesses a lesser number of sympathetic wires.
The sârinda, or Bengal fiddle ([Fig. 14a]), another of the few bowed instruments of India, consists of a hollow wooden body, usually decorated with carving, a curious parchment belly covering only the lower half of the body, and three strings either of gut or silk.
The Hindus divided their musical scale into several intervals smaller than our modern semitones. They adopted twenty-two intervals called s’ruti in the compass of an octave, which may therefore be compared to our chromatic intervals. As the frets of the vina are movable the performer can easily regulate them according to the scale, or mode, which he requires for his music.
The harp has long been obsolete. If some Hindu drawings of it can be relied upon, it had at an early time a triangular frame and was in construction as well as in shape and size almost identical with the Assyrian harp.
The Hindus claim to have invented the violin bow. They maintain that the ravanastra, one of their old instruments played with the bow, was invented about 5,000 years ago by Ravana, a mighty king of Ceylon. However this may be,
there is a great probability that the fiddle-bow originated in Hindustan; because Sanskrit scholars inform us that there are names for it in works which cannot be less than from 1,500 to 2,000 years old. The non-occurrence of any instrument played with a bow on the monuments of the nations of antiquity is by no means so sure a proof as has generally been supposed, that the bow was unknown. The fiddle in its primitive condition must have been a poor contrivance. It probably was despised by players who could produce better tones with greater facility by twanging the strings with their fingers, or with a plectrum. Thus it may have remained through many centuries without experiencing any material improvement. It must also be borne in mind that the monuments transmitted to us chiefly represent historical events, religious ceremonies, and royal entertainments. On such occasions instruments of a certain kind only were used, and these we find represented; while others, which may have been even more common, never occur. In 2,000 years’ time people will possibly maintain that some highly perfected instrument popular with them was entirely unknown to us, because it is at present in so primitive a condition that no one hardly notices it.
"What the ravanastra, or râbanastra, was like is rather doubtful, but at the present time there exists in Ceylon a primitive instrument played with a bow, called vinavah, which has two strings of different kinds, one made of a species of flax, and the other of horsehair, which is the material also of the string of the bow…. The hollow part of this instrument is half a cocoa-nut shell polished, covered with the dried skin of a lizard, and perforated below.” (Day, p. 102.)
This instrument again is almost identical with the Chinese fiddle called ur-heen, which also has two strings, and a body consisting of a small block of wood, hollowed out and covered