The Bansuri

The transverse flute is one of the oldest man-made instruments and can be found in virtually all corners of the world. In India, the bamboo flute has been played as a folk instrument for thousands of years and is often associated with images of Lord Krishna playing it in a pastoral setting.

Within the last hundred years, the bansuri has gained an elevated status in North India, and has become a major instrument of North Indian Classical Music. The credit for this goes to pioneering musician Pannallal Ghosh, who made a larger version of the bamboo flute that was already commonly played in the folk setting. Through his artistry, he showed the world the potential of this new instrument as one capable of expressing all of the intricacies of North Indian Classical Music. Many other great bansuri players followed him including Hariprasad Chaurasia, Raghunath Seth, Vijay Raghav Rao, and Devendra Murdeshwar and among the more prominent of the next generation after them - Ronu Majumdar and Rajendra Prassanna.

Technically speaking, the bansuri is transverse cylindrical bamboo flute with 7 playing holes and one blowing hole. The bamboo used to make a bansuri is often collected from the regions in north and northeastern India such as Uttar Pradesh and Assam and is chosen, such that a complete piece can be cut without any nodes in it. The bamboo is washed, dried, and left to stand for up to 2 years with regular oiling. When the bamboo is ready one side is closed with a cork and the blowing hole is made. The playing holes, which can be up to a centimeter in diameter, are then made to specific measurements depending on the desired key of the flute. When played with six holes covered as the tonic, the scale produced is very close to the western major scale. The seventh hole, which is furthest from the blowing hole, is used to reach one note below this tonic. However, it is important to understand that classical bansuri players play most often with three holes covered being the tonic, thus making the flute tuned similar to the western lydian scale. All of the chromatic notes as well as microtones can be achieved by partially covering the holes or 'half-holing'. Some contemporary bansuri players, such as Pandit Raghunath Seth, have added a key to larger bansuris for reaching the seventh hole. Other bansuri players either do not use this hole, or are able to reach it with their small finger. In the North Indian Classical setting, a bansuri tuned with its tonic somewhere around the E above middle C is most often used.