PLATE I.
A BIN PLAYER.
THIS plate shows the position of a player upon the Bin or Vina[1] of the North of India. The vina of the South, described in the next plate, is sometimes called the Rudra vina, in distinction to the bin or Mahati vina. As will be seen, this is a fretted instrument, the frets being arranged at semitonic intervals. The tuning differs from that of the Southern vina, and two gourd resonators take the place of the wooden pear-shaped body. It is worthy of note that an instrument of this description was described by Mersenne in 1636.[2]
The average total length of the instrument is 3 feet 7 inches, in which case the dimensions are as follows:—
The first gourd is fixed at 10 inches from the top, and the second about 2 feet 11½ inches.
The gourds are usually very large, about 14 inches in diameter, and each has a round piece cut out of the bottom to act as a sound hole.
The finger-board is 21⅝ inches in length and about 3 inches wide, and upon it are placed the frets, exactly in the same manner as in the vina, and at the same semitonic intervals.
The frets are nineteen to twenty-two in number, that nearest the nut usually being ⅛-inch above the finger-board, and that at the other extremity about ⅜-inch, the decrease gradual.
- ↑ This instrument is very fully described as "The Indian Lyre." "Asiatic Researches." Vol. I.
The bin has been described by Mr. Carl Engel as "the vina of the Indus"; this is, however, an error on his part, it being but a form, and far from the best form, of that instrument, popular chiefly because of its comparatively low cost. Drawings of this instrument will be found in his " Musical Instruments," in " Asiatic Researches " above-mentioned, and in Hipkins and Gibb's "Musical Instruments." - ↑ "Harmonie Universelle." Fr. Mersenne. Paris, 1636.
