Vadodara: A miniature Rudra veena crafted by a fifth-generation artisan family from the city will now have a permanent place in the President’s Museum in New Delhi.The intricately crafted instrument was presented to President Droupadi Murmu at a special investiture ceremony for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards held at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital on Thursday. Union culture and tourism minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat presented the instrument to the President on behalf of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.The miniature musical instrument was crafted by Vadodara-based artisan Kishorbhai Somabhai Mistry, one of the awardees honoured by the President for his contribution to instrument making.It is a replica of a full-sized traditional Rudra veena and has been crafted with meticulous attention to detail, featuring a wooden tubular body, two gourd resonators, four playing strings—one steel and three bronze—and three drone or chikari strings, comprising two steel and one bronze. The instrument has sheesham frets, while its resonators and peg box feature intricate wooden carvings of floral and peacock motifs.“My father, Kishorbhai Mistry, has become the first artisan in India to be conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for making a Rudra veena. In 2023, he was honoured by the Union Culture Ministry as a veena-making guru“, said 34-year-old Dhaval Mistry, a fifth-generation artisan who revived Rudra veena making in Vadodara after nearly a century.“Not a single feature of the traditional Rudra veena has been missed. It is a replica of a large veena. The Sangeet Natak Akademi wanted to present it to the President and we were given just 15 days to make it. Luckily, we already had everything ready,” he said.The instrument carries traditional detailing, including carved leaf and peacock motifs, with the peacock naturally painted. It has been placed in a showcase alongside a description explaining the instrument and its craftsmanship.For more than 150 years, the Mistry family has preserved the craft of making and restoring rare Indian classical instruments, including the nearly extinct Rudra veena, often revered as the ‘sound of god’.The family’s association with the instrument dates back to Mansukh Raghunath Mistry, who learnt Rudra veena making from M C Bua, a player in the court of the Gaekwads of Baroda. His craftsmanship earned the family its first gold medal in 1904 at an industrial and agricultural exhibition in Bombay.The legacy was later carried forward by Bapulal Chhotalal Mistry. The family workshop, B C Mistry & Sons, continues to bear his name.
