Bansuri Introduction

Bansuri word comes from the two words, bans means bamboo and suri means the thing which produces a sur (note). Hence the meaning of the bansuri is the bamboo which produces a note ( I.e., musical note).Bansuri produces very sweet and mellow sound.
One more meaning of the word Suri in the Sanskrit is Krishna. The word suri is also epithet of Krishna. Hence the instrument may also got its name from Lord Shri Krishna’s bamboo musical instrument as “Bansuri”
Bansuri is made form one single bamboo with one end cork and another end seven to Nine holes including one blowing hole. Generally it comes in the size of 14 inch to 40 inch. The Smaller Bansuri has higher pitch tonic or say key, on the other side longer bansuri has lower pitch tonic or key.There are many types of bansuri as six hole bansuri, seven hole bansuri, tripura bansuri, straight bansuri, carnatic Bansuri etc.

Its roots are traced in the Indian history where we can see the Lord Krishna playing this instrument. There are names of Shri Krishna based on this instrument like Bansidhar etc. The birth of Lord Krishna is estimated around 3228 BCE and the bansuri was fully developed to produce the musical sound, we can imagine that how old instrument is this !!!
Another references are taken from Sangeet Ratnakar (Around 13th century) where the description of bansuri and its sizes comes, also there is the word “Venu” comes in the ancient veda texts (Around 1500 BC). The small Basuri, Producing the sweet tone is known as “Venu”. It is believed that it was used during the vedic rituals for the invitation of the divine powers.
In earlier times this instrument was not considered in the Hindustani Classical performance. It was Pannalal Ghose who identified the possibilities of the instrument and brought it to the mainstream of the classical music. Pandit hariprasad Chaurasia made this instrument popular by his unique blowing style and new techniques.
To play bansuri one must do the two things, One is blowing and another is fingering. Blowing is a similar art as we blow whistle, by blowing bansuri one can get the note and by fingering (A technique of opening or closing the holes) one can alter the pitch of the note as desired.