Venu

The venu (Sanskrit: वेणु; veṇu) is a bamboo transverse flute used in the Carnatic music of South India. Although it is often called Carnatic flute or simply flute in English, venu is the instrument's ancient Sanskrit name. It is also called by various other names in the languages of South India, including pullankuzhal (புல்லாங்குழல்) in Tamil, പുല്ലാങ്കുഴല്‍ in Malayalam, and ಕೊಳಲು (koLalu) in Kannada. It is known as pillana grovi (పిల్లన గ్రోవి) in Telugu (Andhra Pradesh). It is called Bansuri in Marathi (Maharashtra), and is used extensively for Hindustani classical music.