Scientific approach of the shape of the Veena

The veena’s big bowl is hollow to allow the sound to resonate and travel. The finger- board with its 25 frets are attached to it with enough room for the player to put his/her arm around it to press between the frets to produce the notes. The kudukai or the smaller bowl is also hollow and used to be made out of pumpkin shell in the old days, then out of metal and out of fiber glass in the modern days and also functions as a resonator and also helps the player to rest the veena on his/her lap. The frets are set at distances carefully calculated according to acoustic physics to produce the twelve-tone scale that emerged around the 7th century A.D. The four strings are of different thickness and tuned to different notes in different octaves to allow the veena to have three and a half octaves. The three side strings are strummed at appropriate places to keep control of the rhythm.