The Vichitra Vīṇā, often written Vichitra Veena, saw its splendor towards the beginning of the twentieth century but many indications lead us to think that it is a developed and modified version of a very ancient instrument. Scholars are of the opinion that the brāhmavīṇā, which in turn was also called ghoshika and ghoshvati in the time of Bharata Muni and later ekatantri vīṇā, is the predecessor of the Vichitra Vīṇā

From the seventh century to the thirteenth century, for almost six or seven centuries, this Vīṇā reigned over the musical scene of India. In sculptures, murals and paintings of this period, the ekatantri vīṇā were depicted very frequently, which suggests its dominance over other stringed instruments of that period.

The Ektantri Vīṇā, as the name suggests (ek means one, tanto means string) had only one string and the notes were produced with the help of a bamboo stick called kamrika, which was held in the left hand and acted as a slide. There were no frets and a single gourd on the upper end of the bamboo was attached to the neck.

It is assumed that after the thirteenth century, with the growing popularity of the zither (Tansen and his descendants gave much importance to the Rudra Vīṇā), the popularity of the Ektantri Vīṇā gradually declined.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, an instrument with sound production techniques similar to the Ektantri Vīṇā emerged again, first in the south in Carnatic music and then in northern music, taking on new names and new structures. In Carnatic music, this instrument became known as Goṭu Vādyama and in Hindustani music it took the name Batta Been, better known as Vichitra Vīṇā.

According to Gopal Krishan Sharma*, a famous Vichitra Vīṇā player from Delhi, about a century ago there lived a musician called Radha Krishna Goswami in Mathura who played on an instrument quite similar to the Vichitra Vīṇā. This instrument, which in all likelihood had the shape of a crocodile, had, instead of two gourds, four resonators in the shape of crocodile legs which served as supports for the large and heavy handle.

The credit for giving the Vichitra Vīṇā its current name and developing its playing style, immediately making everyone's interest in the instrument flourish again, goes, according to tradition, to Abdul Aziz Khān, a Sāraṅgī player from the court of Patiala who decided to pick up an instrument that according to some was created by the master violin maker Dariba Kalan of New Delhi, according to others by the famous Rikhi Ram Sharma who at the time had a workshop in Lahore.

In general appearance and structure, the Vichitra Vīṇā is similar to the other Vīṇā and the main difference lies in the absence of keys and in the sound production technique. The instrument is placed on the pumpkins on the ground and the tailpiece is thus turned towards the sky. To produce the notes, the strings are plucked with the same technique as the Rudra Vīṇā but the sound is modulated with the slide technique by sliding a glass or crystal ovoid held with the left hand over the strings.

A particularly extended tuning fork allows the oscillations between microtones to be expressed precisely, but makes it difficult to reach the level of perfection necessary to play in tune, both in fast passages and in calm and slow modes.

The wood used is often either sisham, rosewood or teak. It has a huge hollow body, about four feet long and about thirteen centimeters wide and about seven or eight centimeters high. There are two bridges, one for the main strings and a smaller one for the sympathetic strings which are fixed on the soundboard. This part of the body on which the bridges are fixed is wider and deeper and acts as a sound box. As with other Indian stringed instruments, the sympathetic strings enter through holes in the soundboard, to be fixed on the respective keys inside the hollow body.

For the back part, a removable peacock shape is generally modeled, carved into the wood, while for the headstock a swan or more rarely a crocodile or a dragon is chosen. Two removable gourds of the same size, about one meter in diameter, are literally screwed to the body of the instrument and are decorated with wooden floral inlays.

The Vichitra Vīṇā has nine to eleven main strings and eleven to fifteen sympathetic strings confirming that the number of strings, their tuning system and the tonic of the instrument vary from artist to artist.

The Vichitra Vīṇā is a rare instrument and there are not many artists who play this instrument.

Abdul Aziz Khān never limited the Vīṇā to the dhrupad singing style, but rather, he also managed to express all those nuances typical of the khayal and ṭhumrī vocal styles.

Prof. Lal Mani Mishra (1924 -1979), professor at the Faculty of Performing Arts of the Benares Hindu University, achieved fame with the Vichitra Vīṇā in the sixties and although influenced by the technique developed by Abdul Aziz Khān, he further modified the instrument and the arrangement of the strings. In fact, he preferred to tune the instrument on a "feminine" register, keeping the tonic roughly on G sharp while previously the instrument was tuned in C sharp, a register used in male singing, also expanding the total range of the instrument to five octaves. Many of his techniques were unique, for example for expressing the kṛntana**, and the use of cikārī both sides during Jhālā.

Gopal Krishan Sharma (1926-2004) of New Delhi is a dhrupad-style Vichitra Vīṇā exponent who learned the art of music from his father, Nand Kishore Sharma, a singer and player of Rudra Vīṇā and Surbahar, a student of Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. After his father's death he continued his studies with Khubchand Bramchari, an exponent of the Gwalior Gharānā.

Gianni Ricchizzi is today the most expert and representative artist regarding the Vichitra Vīṇā in the dhrupad, he graduated as Master of Sitār and Indian Music at the Benares Hindu University, he studied the Vichitra Vīṇā with Gopal Krishan Sharma and with Ritwik Sanyal the dhrupad chant. He also brought some modifications to the two Vīṇā that he owns, for example increasing the thickness of the strings to reach even lower tones and adding studs under the gourds to allow greater freedom of movement for the sound. Maestro Gianni Ricchizzi keeps one of the two Vīṇā tuned to the male register and the other to the female register.

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Among other artists we mention:

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• Fakir Habib Ali Khan

• Ramesh Prem

• Mustafa Raza

• Gopal Shankar Mishra

• Ragini Trivedi

• Brahma Swarup Singh

• Ajit Singh

• Anurag Singh

• Krishna Chandra Gupta

• Padmaja Vishwarup

• Ahmed Raza Khan

• Faqeer Shah

• Mohamed Sharief,

• Abdur Rashid

• Radhika Veena Sadhika

• Noor Zehra

• Sanjay Verma

• Niranjan Haldar

• Hannah Louise Winzentsen

• Benoit Gerstmans

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*Gianni Ricchizzi learned the techniques of Vichitra Veena from master Gopal Krishan Sharma.

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**A Ṥabdālaṁkāra is a technique used on chordophones to produce a certain sound. It is a variety of legate where both notes are produced in sequence, with a single stroke of the plectrum or Mizrab.