Also 8 vena, 9 veena. [Skr. and Hindi vīṇā.] An Indian musical instrument consisting of a fretted fingerboard, to which seven strings fitted with pegs are attached, with a gourd at each end; an Indian lyre.
1796. Eliza Hamilton, Lett. Hindoo Rajah (1811), I. 211. A musician softly touched the chords of a vena.
1817. Moore, Lalla Rookh, Fire-worshippers, v. Introd. As the story was chiefly to be told in song,… he borrowed the vina of Lalla Rookh’s slave.
1837. [Mrs. Maitland], Lett. fr. Madras (1843), 55. First … came in an old man … to play and sing to the vina, an instrument like a large mandoline.
1896. Ind. Mag., Jan., 39. Instrumental music on the veena … is also much in vogue among them.
