Sitar vs veena
The sitar and the veena are both long-necked, fretted, plucked string instruments from India, and from across a room they can look like cousins. They are cousins, in a way — but they belong to different traditions, are held and played differently, and sound different enough that most listeners can tell them apart within a phrase. Here is a plain comparison.
First, which veena?
"Veena" names more than one instrument, and the comparison changes depending on which one is meant.
- The Saraswati veena is the veena most people mean today. It belongs to Carnatic music, the classical tradition of South India, and is still widely taught and played.
- The rudra veena (also called the been) belongs to Hindustani music, the North Indian tradition the sitar also comes from. It is much older than the sitar, is associated with the slow, deep style called dhrupad, and is rare today — there are few players and fewer teachers.
Most of this guide compares the sitar with the Saraswati veena, since that is the question most people are asking. The rudra veena comes up where its story touches the sitar's.
What each instrument is
The sitar has a large gourd body, a long hollow neck, and around eighteen to twenty curved metal frets tied on with thread, so they can be moved. It carries three sets of strings: a handful of playing strings, the high chikari drone strings, and eleven to thirteen taraf (sympathetic) strings running underneath, which are never plucked directly but ring on their own when the notes they are tuned to are played. The full picture is in parts of a sitar.
The Saraswati veena is traditionally carved from jackfruit wood, with a large resonator at one end, a wide fingerboard, and a smaller gourd under the far end of the neck. Its twenty-four brass frets are fixed in a ridge of wax, laid out so that every semitone has its own fret. It has four playing strings and three side strings used for drone and rhythm, and no sympathetic strings.
How they sound
The quickest way to tell them apart is the halo around each note.
- The sitar shimmers. Its main bridge, the jawari, is filed so the string brushes against it as it vibrates, giving the bright, buzzing edge the sitar is known for. Underneath, the sympathetic strings keep ringing after each note, so every phrase sits inside a cloud of resonance.
- The veena is rounder and more direct. It has no sympathetic strings, so there is less halo, and its bridge gives a softer buzz. The sound is warm and close, and the detail of each ornament is very exposed.
Neither is "better". The sitar's sound fills a room; the veena's draws you in.
How they are played
| Sitar | Saraswati veena | |
|---|---|---|
| Tradition | Hindustani (North Indian) | Carnatic (South Indian) |
| Holding it | Angled across the body, the gourd resting by the left foot | Across the lap, resonator on the floor to the right |
| Plucking hand | A wire plectrum, the mizrab, on the index finger | Fingertips or fingernails of the index and middle fingers |
| Frets | About 18–20, curved, movable | 24, fixed in wax, one per semitone |
| Strings | Playing, chikari and sympathetic — up to about 20 | 4 playing and 3 side strings |
| Bending | Deep pulls, often across several notes | Pulls and fast oscillations, central to the style |
| Music | Raga improvisation and composed gats over tabla | Carnatic compositions, often sung lines adapted to the instrument |
The biggest practical difference is in the frets. The sitar's frets are high and curved, with space underneath for the string to be pulled a long way — a single fret can carry a glide of several notes. That is why the long, smooth meend is so central to the sitar's voice. The veena's frets are low and fixed for every semitone, and its ornaments, the Carnatic gamakas, lean towards quick, close oscillations and shapes that sit between neighbouring notes.
A shared ancestor, of sorts
The sitar is the younger instrument. Its music was shaped, early on, by the rudra veena and the players who carried its repertoire. Much of the slow, unfolding approach to a raga's opening — the alap — and the habit of building a performance from one note outwards come from that older world. Hearing a rudra veena alap and then a sitar alap side by side is a good way to hear the family resemblance.
What carries over from one to the other
If you already play one of these instruments, a surprising amount of what you know is useful on the other.
- The note names. Both traditions use the same seven swaras, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni, and both think in ragas rather than chords.
- The left hand pulling the string. Deflecting a string sideways across a fret is the core ornament on both. A veena player picks up sitar meend quickly; a sitar player finds the veena's gamakas familiar in principle, if very different in detail.
- Sitting on the floor. Both are played seated, traditionally cross-legged, with the instrument's weight supported by the body.
- Playing over a drone. Both are melody instruments that sit over a constant Sa, and both have strings set aside for keeping it.
What does not carry over easily: the repertoire and rhythmic language (Carnatic and Hindustani music count and ornament differently), the plucking hand (mizrab against fingers), and the fret layout, which on the sitar has to be moved for some ragas.
Which suits you?
- If the music you love is Carnatic — kritis, the South Indian repertoire, the sound of a voice and veena together — the Saraswati veena is the natural choice, and the tradition around it is strong.
- If the music you love is Hindustani — long raga improvisations, tabla, the sound of a sitar recital — the sitar is the natural choice. It is also far easier to buy, string and find teachers for outside India.
- If you are drawn to dhrupad and the deepest, slowest kind of raga playing, the rudra veena is extraordinary, but plan on searching hard for a teacher.
- If you are not sure, listen to a long recording of each, at a quiet hour, and notice which one you keep thinking about afterwards. That is usually the right answer.
If you want to try the sitar's side of the comparison straight away, the Learn course starts from the first stroke, and the virtual sitar lets you hear and play its notes in your browser. For a comparison with the instrument most Western players start from, see sitar vs guitar.