At 13:21 27.03.2005 +0600, you wrote:

>Dear Ven. Pandita,
>
>You wrote:
>
> > I have seen old Indian reliefs of an instrument looking very much like
> > a Burmese saung. The saung is not a European harp. It is not a
> > triangular harp with a pillar. It is a pillarless "bow harp", but it
> > is nevertheless a member of the larger harp family. Now, if the relief
> > I refer to, shows a viina, then I think you are prefectly right in
> > calling it a harp after all.
>
>Thank you for your information, but was that saung-like instrument
>termed vii.naa? Or did it have a different name? I am not able to answer
>but perhaps Gunnar will if he has also seen it.
>
>with metta
>
>Ven. Pandita

I did some further checking, and found the following in Basham, "The Wonder
That Was India", p. 386:
------------------------
The chief musical instument was the vina, usually loosely translated
"lute". The term was originally applied to the bow-harp, often with ten
strings, of a type very similar to the small harp used in ancient Egypt and
the early civilizations of the Middle East (pl. XXXVIIb). By the end of the
Gupta period this instrument had begun to go out of fashion, and its place
was largely taken by a lute with a pear-shaped body, played either with the
fingers or with a plectrum. Archaeological evidence shows that this
instrument had been played long before, and it is not clear why it ousted
the older harp-type vina. This is still played in South-East Asia, but in
later Indian music it has no place. The pear-shaped lute was in turn
superseded in the 8th century by the early form of the modern vina, with
long finger-boaard and small round body, often made of a dried gourd.
---------------------------

So according to Basham pre-Gupta references to vina refer to the bow-harp
(saung), that is a harp, and not to the lute. I will have to adjust my
Norwegian translations accordingly. Formerly I have written "lutt" as well,
but from now on it will be "harpe".

Admittedly, this is not a deep Dhamma question, but since I have built and
play both lutes and harps, I personally find it interesting.

And since angels in European tradition often play harps, it makes the texts
even more accessible to Western readers having the heavenly
gandhabba-musicians playing harp.

Best regards,

Kåre A. Lie
http://www.lienet.no/