A family of chordophone instruments from the Indian subcontinent. There are several regional variations of the veena.

The South Indian design (saraswati veena) as shown is a long-necked, pear-shaped, plucked lute and is used in Carnatic classicai music, 

The North Indian design (rudra veena, vichitra veena), used in Hindustani classical music, is more strictly a stick zither.