Venu

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The venu is a bamboo transverse flute used in the Carnatic music of South India. Although it is often called Carnatic flute or simply flute in English, venu (properly transliterated with a dot under the "n") is the instrument's ancient Sanskrit name. It is also called by various other names in the languages of South India, including pullanguzhal (in both Tamil and Malayalam).

One of the oldest musical instruments of India, the instrument is a keyless transverse flute made of bamboo. The fingers of both hands are used to close and open the holes. It has a blowing hole near one end, and eight closely placed finger holes. The instrument comes in various sizes.

The venu is associated with the Hindu god Krishna, who is often depicted playing it. This kind of flute is mainly used in South India, and also goes by the name Venu.

The venu is capable of producing two and half octaves with the help of blowing - overblowing and cross fingering. The flute is like the human voice in that it is monophonous and also has the two and half octaves sound reproduction. Sliding the fingers on and off the holes allows for a great degree of ornamentation, important in the performance of raga-based music.

The venu's north Indian counterpart is called bansuri.

1 Famous venu players of the past
2 Famous contemporary venu players
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Famous venu players of the past

Sarabha Sastry
Palladam Sanjeeva Rao
Kalaimamani Sri H. Ramachandra Shastry - A disciple of Sri Palladam Sanjeeva Rao.
The late T. R. Mahalingam - A child prodigy who started at the age of five years. He is most popularly known as "Mali" or sometimes "Flute Mali."

[edit] Famous contemporary venu players

Kalaimamani Prof. Prapancham Sita Ram
Padmashree Sikkil Sisters - Kunjumani & Neela
Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr. N. Ramani [1]
Sikkil Mala Chandrasekar
Shashank - A child prodigy who started to play the flute at the age of six years and give his first concert performance at the age of twelve years.
Dr. N. Ramani - Disciple of T. R. Mahalingam
Late B. N. Suresh
Late T. Viswanathan - Grandson of Veena Dhanammal and brother of Balasaraswati
Sikkil Sisters
K. S. Gopalakrishnan (Different from the 'famous' Malayalam sex movie producer.)
Flute Raman

The venu is similar to the bansuri, a bamboo flute used in the Hindustani classical music of North India.

Venu is also a nickname for the Hindu god Krishna. Because Krishna plays a venuvu, so his name has become Venu.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

Bansuri - The bansuri from the Hindustani music tradition is a 7/8 holed flute. Lord Krishna was also known as Venu and the music from his flute was called as Venu Naadham.^{[citation needed]}
Carnatic Music
Hindustani Music