Veena in the context of "Sitar"

Lutes are stringed musical instruments that include a body and "a neck which serves both as a handle and as a means of stretching the strings beyond the body".

The lute family includes not only short-necked plucked lutes such as the lute, oud, pipa, guitar, citole, gittern, mandore, rubab, and gambus and long-necked plucked lutes such as banjo, tanbura, bağlama, bouzouki, veena, theorbo, archlute, pandura, sitar, tanbur, setar, but also bowed instruments such as the yaylı tambur, rebab, erhu, and the entire family of viols and violins.

Buddhist music is music (Sanskrit: vàdita, saṅgīta) created for or inspired by Buddhism and includes numerous ritual and non-ritual musical forms. As a Buddhist art form, music has been used by Buddhists since the time of early Buddhism, as attested by artistic depictions in Indian sites like Sanchi. While certain early Buddhist sources contain negative attitudes to music, Mahayana sources tend to be much more positive to music, seeing it as a suitable offering to the Buddhas and as a skillful means to bring sentient beings to Buddhism.

Buddhist music retains a prominent place in many Buddhist traditions, and is usually used for ceremonial and devotional purposes. Buddhist music and chanting is often part of Buddhist rituals and festivals in which they may be seen as offerings to the Buddha.

Hindustani classical music (also known as North Indian classical music or Shastriya Sangeet) is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent's northern regions. It is played on instruments like the veena, sitar and sarod. It diverged in the 12th-century from Carnatic music, the classical tradition of southern India. While Carnatic music largely uses compositions written in Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindustani music largely uses compositions written in Sanskrit, Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu), Braj, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Bengali, Rajasthani and Punjabi.

Knowledge of Hindustani classical music is taught through a network of classical music schools, called gharana. Hindustani classical music is an integral part of the culture of North India and is performed across the country and internationally. Exponents of Hindustani classical music, including Ustad Bismillah Khan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Ravi Shankar have been awarded the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of India, for their contributions to the arts.

The rudra veena (Sanskrit: रुद्र वीणा) (also spelled rudraveena or rudra vīnā), also called the bīn in North India, is a large plucked string instrument used in Hindustani music, especially dhrupad. It is one of the major types of veena played in Indian classical music, notable for its deep bass resonance. Oral tradition ascribes the instrument to Shiva, the principal deity within Hinduism.

The rudra veena is seen in temple architecture predating the Mughals. It is also mentioned in court records as early as the reign of Zain-ul Abidin (1418–1470), and attained particular importance among Mughal court musicians. Before independence, rudra veena players, as dhrupad practitioners, were supported by the princely states; after independence and the political integration of India, this traditional patronage system ended. With the end of this traditional support, dhrupad's popularity in India declined, as did the popularity of the rudra veena. However, in recent years, the rudra veena has seen a resurgence in popularity, driven at least partly by interest among non-Indian musicians.

The Sarasvatī vīṇa (also spelled Saraswati veena) (Telugu: సరస్వతి వీణ, Kannada: ಸರಸ್ವತಿ ವೀಣೆ, Tamil: சரஸ்வதி வீணை, Malayalam: സരസ്വതി വീണ) is an ancient Indian plucked veena. It is named after the Hindu goddess Saraswati, who is usually depicted holding or playing the instrument. Also known as raghunatha veena, it is used mostly in Carnatic Indian classical music. There are several variations of the veena, which in its South Indian form is a member of the lute family. One who plays the veena is referred to as a vaiṇika.

The Saraswati veena is one of 4 major types of veena today. The others include chitra veena, vichitra veena and rudra veena. Out of these the rudra and vichitra veenas are used more often in Hindustani music, while the Saraswati veena and the chitra veena are used more frequently in the Carnatic music of South India. They can be used to play either traditional music or contemporary music.

A thaat (IAST: thāṭ) is a "parent scale" in North Indian or Hindustani music. It is the Hindustani equivalent of the term Melakartha raga of Carnatic music. The concept of the thaat is not exactly equivalent to the western musical scale because the primary function of a thaat is not as a tool for music composition, but rather as a basis for classification of ragas. There is not necessarily strict compliance between a raga and its parent thaat; a raga said to 'belong' to a certain thaat need not allow all the notes of the thaat, and might allow other notes. Thaats are generally accepted to be heptatonic by definition.

The term thaat is also used to refer to the frets of stringed instruments like the sitar and the veena. It is also used to denote the posture adopted by a Kathak dancer at the beginning of their performance.