"The essential difference between this instrument and the been is that, in the place of chords it has but one string of wire, strongly stretched. To draw out the sound, a bow like that of a bass is prest upon this chord, at the same time that another part of it is struck or rubbed with a little stick.
Thepināka vīnā (Hindi:पिनाक pinnak +Hindi:वीणा veena) was an Indian musical instrument, amusical bow that was itself played with abow. It has also been transliteratedpinaki vina andpinak.[2][3]
It appeared similar to therudra veena (also called "bīn" or "been"), with a long bar held over the musician's shoulder and resting on the ground, with large gourds attached at each end for resonators. However, where therudra veena has multiple strings and frets, the pinaka vina had only one string made of wire and no frets.[1] Where therudra veena was a stick zither (with a straight and rigid bar for the instrument's body), thepinaka vīnā was a musical bow (its body a long stick turned up at each end).
The instrument was sounded with a bow.[1] The musician chose notes with a stick held against the strings,[1] able to slide it up and down on the string, in the same way a bottle slides on aslide guitar's strings.
![A bīn or kuplyans in Solvyn's 1799 publication. Plucked stick zither with two strings. The word kuplyans is "limited to Bengal."[4]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aA_Bin_or_Kuplyans_by_Frans_Balthazar_Solvyns%2c_from_A_Collection_of_Two_Hundred_and_Fifty_Coloured_Etchings_(1799).gif)
Pinaka was the name of the bow (arrow-shooting variety) ofShiva. The musical bowpināka made it into literature by the 12th century C.E. in theSaraswati Hridayalankar orBharatbhashya byNanyadeva (1097–1133 C.E.) In the mid-12th century it was considered to be a very important instrument by Haripala, aGujarati king (son ofKarna). The instrument was recorded in 1456 as having a second resonator. By 1810 the instrument was rare, and much of our knowledge about its appearance comes from drawings made byFrans Balthazar Solvyns, an artist who illustrated many common scenes in the 1790s and early 1800s.[1]
As thepinak was a northern instrument, a bowed southern instrument also existed, theravanahathastick zither. Thepināka andravanahatha are tied together in literature. Aspināka was Shiva's bow, theravanahatha was created in legend by the ascetic demon kingRavana, a devotee of Shiva.[1]
[Three issues of this quarterly journal were combined into one; Volume 15 (issues 3 and 4) and Volume 16 (issue 1).]
...pināka orpinākī vīnā... the medieval Sanskritpinākī and the later northernpināk is a bowed bow