The rudra-vina or bin – a vernacular term used in North India – belongs to the family of tube zithers, a later development of the stick zither. It consists of a long wooden or bamboo tube (dandi) beneath which two resonators (tumba) made of dried and hollowed-out gourd are fixed. Numerous high wooden frets (sarika) are arranged on the tube with the help of a resinous substance or with linen cords. Four melodic metal strings are stretched out on these frets, while two slender rhythmic strings (chikari) and a drone string (laraj), also metallic, are fastened laterally along the length of the tube, on both sides of the frets.
The morphology of the rudra-vina as we know it today has scarcely changed since the second half of the 18th century and it had already acquired its near-final features almost two centuries earlier in the southern part of the peninsula.

To know more about the main parts constituting a rudra-vina,
click on the relevant parts on the icon below: