A one-piece rosewood veena fashioned with sandpaper

The polishing was done with a mixture of rare essential oils like tung oil of China, cedar oil, juniper oil and absolute rose oil.

M.K. Narasimhan with his rosewood veena in Mysuru. PHOTO: M.A.SRIRAM

It took M.K. Narasimhan 2,500 hours over five years to make a veena. But it is no ordinary musical instrument. The civil engineer from Mysuru wrought the veena out of a single log of rosewood using neither chisel nor hammer. He ‘carved’ it entirely out of sandpaper.

Although wood from the jackfruit tree is the usual preference for a veena, Mr. Narasimhan, a retired Research Officer of the Dam Safety Cell of Karnataka Government, was drawn to rosewood.

He had never attempted to make a veena before, but said he enjoyed playing the instrument as a child. After years of researching different varieties of wood, he zeroed in on a five-foot-long piece of rosewood from the Titimati forest area near Kodagu. It was 150 years old and had been exposed to both the Northeast and Southwest monsoons.

“It was a challenge as rosewood is known to splinter easily. But I wanted only rosewood as it is notches above jackfruit wood in sound propagation,” he said.

The polishing was done with a mixture of rare essential oils like tung oil of China, cedar oil, juniper oil and absolute rose oil.

He used bronze bridges to place the strings. “The frets are handmade with silver brought from Australia,” he said.

Mr. Narasimhan began still has to string the veena. He spent Rs. 3 lakh making this unique veena, but it’s not for sale. “I don’t think I can part with it,” he said.