First appeared in www.scroll.in on December 13, 2014. The gottuvadyam or chitraveena has been used in Carnatic music for several generations.  But the introduction of the vichitra veena, its northern Indian cousin, to Hindustani music has been attributed to Abdul Aziz Khan (1881-1946), originally a sarangi player from Patiala. A fretless instrument, the instrument is also called batta been. Batta in Hindi refers to the stone that grinds spices, but here it refers to the round glass piece resembling a