A plucked string instrument from Northern India used in Hindustani music.

It has a broad, fretless, horizontal arm or crossbar (dand) around 3 and a half feet long and 6 inches wide, with 2 large resonating gourds (tumba), which are inlaid with ivory and attached underneath at either end. The narrow ends of the instrument are fashioned into peacock heads, the national bird of India.

There are 4 main playing strings and 5 secondary strings (chikaris), which are played openly with the little finger for a drone effect. Underneath them are 13 sympathetic strings tuned to the notes of the appropriate raag. The vichitra veena has a 5-octave range. Two plectrums (mizrab) identical to those used for sitar are worn on the middle and index fingers of the right hand to pluck the strings, and a glass ball (batta) is moved with the left across the main strings to create melody (there can be a distance of up to 2 inches between notes). Coconut oil is put on the strings to minimise the friction of the sliding hand holding the batta.