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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsA commission to carve a serpent and a peacock brought sculptor Kunal Joshi into the world of the Rudra veena. He thought the Burma-teak figures were display pieces. They were meant to finish a veena that musician Bahauddin Dagar had been unable to find a maker to restore. What followed was a rare transfer of specialist craft knowledge—and a possible lifeline for an instrument whose makers are increasingly hard to find.
A carving commission led to the veena
About seven years before Malini Nair’s Scroll.in feature was published on November 29, 2025, Joshi, a young sculptor from Varad village in Malvan, was commissioned to carve two forms from Burma teak: the mythological serpent Vasuki and a peacock. He spent six months on the carvings, believing they were mementos or display pieces. Only later did he learn they were intended as the ends of a Rudra veena belonging to Bahauddin Dagar.
Dagar had been trying to restore the instrument, which had been made in Calcutta in 1960 by Kanailal and Brother for his father, musician Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. Unable to find a restorer, he began with the two carved ends, hoping their maker might be able to take on more. “I could find no one to restore the veena and thought that I could start by just getting the Vasuki and peacock made and then see if its maker could go further,” Dagar said.
On this particular veena, the Vasuki end reduces string tension, while the peacock head contains a chamber intended to increase resonance. These are features of the instrument described in the report, not a universal blueprint for every Rudra veena. Zia Mohiuddin Dagar had redesigned this instrument to reach a lower octave that matched the human voice.
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Two years of learning how to take it apart and rebuild it
Joshi visited Dagar’s dhrupad gurukul in Panvel in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic extended his stay, giving him time to listen closely to the instrument’s deep resonance and learn how it was built. Over the next two years, Dagar guided him through deconstructing and reconstructing the veena.
The transition drew on Joshi’s experience with form and carving, but making an instrument required a different level of precision across many connected parts. Joshi estimated that there are “nearly 70-80 parts to put together.” That is his description of the assembly challenge, not a standardized parts count.
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Since learning the craft, Joshi has made five veenas owned by Dagar’s students and offers Dagar-style instruments to musicians, according to Nair’s report. His route into the work was accidental; what followed was sustained instruction from a musician who knew the instrument and feared its specialist making knowledge would disappear.
Why Rudra veena making is under pressure
Nair’s feature describes the Rudra veena as difficult to master and slow to make: a single instrument takes at least two years to craft. It names older craft centers in Vadodara, Meraj and Calcutta, and makers including Kanailal, Mangala Prasad and the Mistry family. The report says most old master luthiers have stopped making veenas, with only one or two exceptions. It does not provide an authoritative count of how many makers or practitioners remain.
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Dagar’s concern is personal and urgent: “The whole project came from my fear that there will be no veena makers left.” The statement captures why he chose to mentor Joshi; it should not be read as a quantified forecast. The feature points to dwindling performers and audiences as factors that weakened demand. It also recounts a superstition among some makers that a flawed instrument could bring a curse on their families, a belief that should not be generalized to all craftspeople.
The instrument’s sound—and the care needed to preserve it
Dagar describes the Rudra veena as soft but rich in resonance and overtones, with a “certain circularity” that can carry across palace, temple and fort interiors. “It is a sound that does not die easily,” he said. The instrument’s quieter tone also presents a challenge in modern performance: amplification must preserve the subtleties that make the sound distinctive.
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Sound engineer and documentary director Madhu Apsara put it this way: “It [The veena] is a quieter instrument, and [its] sound is very tender, so it needs faithful amplification and reproduction to retain the original microtonal clarity.” The point is not a particular piece of equipment, but the importance of reproducing the instrument’s delicate pitch detail faithfully.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the documentary captures
The Shape of Sound is a 20-minute documentary produced by the Film and Television Institute of India and directed by Apsara. It follows Dagar and Joshi’s collaboration, bringing together the instrument’s material construction, musical tradition and the science of sound. The feature describes the film but does not establish a current viewing platform or availability.
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A lifeline, not proof the danger has passed
Dagar has noted greater visibility for himself and veena player Jyoti Hegde, along with an increase in students. He hopes a future could bring shorter waits for instruments—perhaps six or seven months—or even veenas available off the shelf. That is an aspiration, not a description of current supply. Joshi’s five completed instruments and his offer to musicians show that the work is continuing, but the report does not establish that the wider decline in specialist makers has ended.
Dagar has said of the instrument’s reputation for difficulty, “It is not as difficult as it is made out to be.” Joshi’s story gives that confidence a practical meaning: carving skill opened the door, but apprenticeship and patient reconstruction turned an accidental commission into instrument-making knowledge that can be passed on.
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