Conversing with and through veena

Whenever you talk about veena music, Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh name will surely find its way into the conversation. Winner of many honorary awards including Kalaimamani from the government, Jayanthi is now one of the prominent faces of Indian classical music.

Apart from her solo performances this month, set to happen in The Music Academy and Brahma Gana Sabha, the Bengaluru-based musician will also be collaborating with other classical music legends including Ustad Zakir Hussain, Anil Srinivasan, and Rakesh Chaurasia this year. DC speaks to the iconic musician about the upcoming performances, her future projects, and dying art of traditional veena-making.

Jayanthi has been playing music since she was as young as three years, however, her passion for the art has always been ascending — “The journey of any musician is a continuous and evolving thing. We face many people and moments in our life that keep changing our music. If someone hears my music after a gap of five years, they might say ‘hey, your music sounds different now’. So, these changes give you hope that you will come up with something great in the future. And that’s what keeps me going.”

She recollects one such moment when her perspective of music went through a paradigm shift — “I remember one instance, when I was talking to my guru S Balachander sir. I told him that one can only play classical music with veena, and we are missing out on contemporary music.  I was a kid and I didn’t know things back then. He replied ‘see, there are no limitations to any form of music or instrument. If any, it is only with the musician and in their head. The instrument has huge scope’. That turned out to be a big eye-opener for me.”

Jayanthi once said in an interview that she speaks to her veena. When probed about the nature of that conversation, she says, “It is not just before the performance. The interaction with the veena is a continuous process. The instrument is a living thing. You can treat it as a goddess or as a child, but it has to be played and kept warm. There’s a need for an emotional connect with your instrument. So, I converse with and care for it.”

She then cites the fading art of making veenas and asserts that the government should address the issue — “Artisans who used to make veenas, sticking to the original traditions, are slowly disappearing. Some are even making the instrument with drumstick tree instead of jackfruit wood. Even the number of jackfruit trees is falling. So far, no step has been taken to check this problem.”

Jayanthi is hoping to build an academy for this particular instrument. “It should be a one-stop place for anything regarding the veena. From teaching to making, everything should come under one roof. If any foreigners come in search of knowledge about the veena, the academy should turn out to be the go-to place,” she concludes.