How the world's first female vichitra veena player found the instrument that spoke to her soul

The closest English translation of the Sanskrit word ‘vichitra’ happens to be ‘weird’ or ‘odd’. At the same time, the word also has traces of the word that means ‘splendorous’ or ‘wonderful’.

This word and its association with Indian classical music led me to travel all the way to Kharghar in Navi Mumbai on a weekday evening. It was there I met Dr Radhika Veena Sadhika, the world’s first female v__ichitra veena player, who would be performing at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) on 6 April during the Saz-e-Bahar Music Festival.

Dr Radhika Veena Sadhika (born as Radhika Umdekar) hails from Gwalior, often considered the cradle of classical music in India. Her grandfather was the court musician of the Scindias, the erstwhile ruler of the then princely state of Gwalior. Her father Pt Shriram Umdekar is a renowned A-grade sitar and r__udra veena player. Born in a family of classical musicians, it was no wonder that young Radhika developed an ear for Indian classical music at a very tender age.

“During our childhood, we never used to have toys because our father felt if we played with toys we would never get into music. So there were a lot of musical instruments around. When I was two years old, I used to sleep on my father’s lap and he would play the sitar. That was a routine; I guess that is where it all started. It was when I turned two-and-a-half or three, that my traditional training began under the guidance of my father and my aunt Smt Kamla Mandal. I had also started training in Kathak. At the same time, I started learning all the other instruments. We used to give small performances here and there,” recalls Radhika.

By the time she turned 12, she had emerged as a promising sitar player, having earned a double MA and numerous gold medals. She was a known face by then and it seemed that she would hold the torchlight of her family’s legacy of mastery over sitar. But destiny had some other plans for young Radhika.

“I can’t remember why or how it happened. But when I turned 11, I suddenly had this internal call that said: ‘I have to play the veena, that too one that no other lady had touched so far.’ Here was my family, known for sitar renditions; my father was a fantastic r__udra veena player; my aunts were vocalists — my desire seemed rather like a mirage. For almost a year, I buried that feeling deep in my heart feeling. Those days, conversations with parents weren’t as open as they are today; we had to think twice before opening our mouths,” says Radhika.

But her internal turmoil and anxiety couldn’t be contained for long and one day she confided to her father. Pat came the reply, “Have you gone mad? You are already playing the sitar so well; people have started recognising you,” Radhika recalls her father saying to her, and continues, “I kept on convincing him for a few days and then he asked me, ‘But which veena do you want to learn?’ And there was the catch. I had no idea about veenas at all. I had seen my father’s r__udra veena; I had heard of s__araswati veena as it was popular in South India. That moment, all I could think of was a veena no other woman has played ever.”

Meantime her father got her to play the r__udra veena, even the surbahar (which she admits to playing ‘rather decently’). But none of these were what she was looking for. “I never felt any connection with those instruments. I never felt that we were meant for each other,” she says.

In a few days, Pt Umdekar brought some news for his daughter and told her of a certain veena called the ‘vichitra veena’. “‘What kind of an instrument is that? Vichitra?’ was my first expression. We had an old veena… a huge one. I played it and really liked the tune. Then, my father got me one made from Kolkata by Mangla Prasad Sharma, who literally was in tears while handling me the veena; it seemed as if he was giving away his precious daughter to me,” remembers Radhika.

“And when I played that veena, I felt for the first time that this is ‘my instrument’ and I was born to play it. I can’t explain in words what that feeling was and why I felt it in the first place. I had decided that whatever it is, whatever is left of my life it will all be for this,” she adds.

While today Radhika renders the most complicated of compositions seamlessly on the vichitra veena, the initial days were tough. “It was so challenging for me. Unlike sitar, vichitra veena had no frets at all; it was positioned in a way I wasn’t used to. It was 4 feet 2 inches long; the tumbas were huge; I used to play it using a glass paperweight. Of everything, the biggest challenge was to play it after listening to it, even before it reached to the audience. In sitar the notes are placed nearby, it is just a play of two-three fingers sometimes; here everything was far. But the sound of this instrument was way more different than that of the sitar. I wasn’t that confident about playing the veena at public concerts then,” reminisces Radhika.

With time and rigorous practise, Radhika has now gained mastery over the instrument (though she admits that it will take her “three to four births” in order to gain mastery). Now that she understands the instrument, she told us about the history of this less-known and even much-lesser-played instrument.

Drawing comparisons between vichitra veena and other string instruments, Radhika explains, “Unlike other instruments, it has no frets; sitar, guitar and violin have frets and we play using the hand or rods. Vichitra veena is played using a stone (Radhika uses a shali gram). Sitar, for instance, can be played in accordance to the vocal tonality, but when it comes to Dhrupad singing it can be (only) easily played on vichitra veena in its entirety — be it dhrupad gaayan (vocals), dhrupad aalaap, drut aalaap or bandish everything. Not only that, we can play nearly everything on this veena — from ghazal, thumri, dadra or a bhajan. In fact, an entire song can be rendered as it is using this veena, to make it sound like a female singer voicing the composition. You get 4-5 octaves and hence you can reach ati mandra saptak (lower octaves) in this instrument. And of course, it has a distinct sound.”

A 2015 BBC Hindi report suggested that there were only four vichitra veena players left in the world. There was a time when Radhika was the first and only female vichitra veena player in the world. While she did enjoy being the first, over time, the feeling of being the only one plagued her from within.

“When my name got published in the newspapers stating that I was the first woman vichitra veena player I was on cloud nine. I told everyone that I did what I wanted to all my childhood. Being first was very satisfactory, but the feeling of being the only one bothered me a lot. When I turned 25, I realised that all my efforts will go in vain, if the legacy isn’t continued. In fact, the whole reason to get the vichitra veena customised into a smaller version was so that I didn’t want to be the only player.

“I play the instrument, not for anyone else but because that is what I am and what I want. That’s me. After you get recognition, these accolades and titles, you realise at some point that none of this will count as the ocean of music is limitless. Hence I use the title ‘sadhika’. When I play I find a strange connection with myself. I feel refreshed only after playing the veena,” explains Radhika.

She is a teacher and trains many young and old aspiring veena players. She intends to bring Indian classical music to every Indian home and make today’s generation aware of their vast cultural heritage. “My primary objective is to make people realise how important it is to learn Indian classical music and instruments,” she says. “The resulting sound impacts your body and soul in a very positive way.”

All photographs and video shot by Suryasarathi Bhattacharya