Bansuri: India musical instrument

The bansuri is a transverse flute of India produced from a single hollowed shaft of bamboo that has six or seven holes. It has so many names according to the regions that they can be found. Hindi: बांसुरी, Urdu: بانسری‎, Nepali: बाँसुरी, Marathi: बासरी, Assamese: বাঁহী, Bengali: বাঁশি

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            This is an ancient musicasl instrument that is associated with the cowherds and the pastoral tradition; it is intimately connected to the love story of Krishna and Radha and is also portrayed in Buddhist paintings from around 100 CE. The bansuri is treated with respect as Lord Krishna’s divine musical instrument and is usually linked with the Krishna’s Rasa lila; mythological accounts story of tunes of Krishna’s flute possessing a spellbinding and enslaving effect not only on the women of Brai but also on the animals of the region. The northern Indian bansuri which is about 14 inches long was traditionally used as a soprano instrument primarily to serve as an accompaniment in lighter compositions including film music. The bass variety invented by Pannalal Ghosh has now been necessary in Hindustani Classical music for about over half a century. This musical instrument ranges from less than 12 inches in size to nearly 40 inches.

The word bansuri is said to have originated from the Sankrit “bans” which is Bamboo and “sur” which is melody. There are two varieties of bansuri; the transverse and the fipple. The fipple flute is mostly played in folk music and is held at the lips like a whistle while playing it. This is because it enables superior control, variations and embellishments while the transverse variety is mostly preferred in Indian classical music. Pannalal Ghosh raised the bansuri from a folk instrument to the stage of important classical music. He had scientific test with the length of the instrument, bore and number of holes and also discovered that longer length and larger bore permitted for a better coverage of the lower octaves. He eventually invented the longer bansuri with larger bores and the seventh hole placed a quarter turn inwards from the line of the other six finger holes.

Pandit Raghunath Prasanna who was a well-known Indian classical shehnai and a flute player was also known for introducing the methods of vocal and shehnai in the playing of flute; a new style of playing the Indian bansuri which is different from the style of Pannalal Ghosh. His flute playing has donated by way of introducing novel methods in blowing the flute, the method of handling the fingering holes, systematic with emphasis of Gayaki Ang, the way of filling Shehnai techniques in flute playing especially in playing the ‘Jhala.’ These novelties have been through a lot to ensure that the status of flute is changed from the folk instrument to the concert level. The construction of this musical instrument is a very complex art. The bamboo which is suitable for the instrument’s construction needs to have several qualities. It must be thin walled and straight, it should be with a uniform circular cross section and long stem section. It is difficult to find the bamboo shaft that has all these characteristics and this is what makes this musical instrument rare and expensive. After harvesting a good specimen that is suitable, the bamboo is dried to allow natural present resins to strengthen it, a cork stopper is used to block one end next to which the blowing hole is burnt in. the holes must be burnt in with red hot skewers. The makers of this instruments has only one chance to burn this holes as any mistake renders the material useless, so they start the burning in a small hole after which they play the note with chromatic tuner and a drone called tanpura, slowly make adjustments by sanding the holes in small increments. The bansuri is immersed in antiseptic oil once all the holes are perfected and after which it is cleaned and dried and its end are tied with silk or nylon threads for decoration and also protection of the musical instrument against thermal expansion.

Being the same with other wood wind instrument, the sound of the bansuri is formed from the resonance of the air column that is inside it. The length of this column differs by closing or opening a varying number of holes. Various styles are used to by the players of this instrument to suit the different lengths of the bansuris. The two known styles are the Pannalal grip that uses the fingertips to close the holes and the Hariprasad grip which uses the pad to close the holes. While playing this musical instrument, the sitting posture is also very important; the player should be careful not to strain his back over long hours of practice. The pitch of the instrument is also affected by the length of the musical instrument. The longer bansuri that has a larger bore have a lower pitch while the slimmer bansuri with shorter bores have a higher sound.