It may be among the oldest musical instruments, one, which finds mention even in Vedic literature. But its age and grandeur have not ensured it a lease of life in the next millennium. (That is a mater, which lies in the hands of its practitioners, rasiks and time.) But this much is true, the beenkar tradition in Hindustani music is slowing moving towards extinction, quite unlike the Carnatic tradition, where there is an abundance of veena players. Count the number of beenkars in Hindustani music today and you will be hard pressed to come up with more than four names. And one among them would have to be Dr. Mustafa Raza of the Patiala-Moradabad beenkar gharana.

Grandson of the legendary Ustad Chajju Khan and son of Ustad Ahmad Raza Khan, Dr. Raza has strong likes with both the Moradabad and Patiala charana of music. Despite such an illustrious lineage, there is no trace of arrogance on Dr. Raza's demeanour. "I am no great musician," is the first thing he tells, as he proceeds to put you at ease at his Minto Road residence.

Talking first of the Moradabad Gharana, he tells you about Ustad Ahmad Jan Thirkwa, the famous tabla exponent, Ustad Chajju Khan, his grandfather and vocalist Ustad Kalenazir Khan, who cracked the roof of Maharaja Rampur's durbar with his powerful taankari. He might have become a rudra veena exponent, but for his grandfather, who was so bewitched by Ustad Abdul Aziz Khan's vichitra vena, that he becomes this shishya. And thereby started a beenkar tradition of the vichitra veen.

The credit of bringing the vichitra veena into Patiala Hindustani shastriya sanget belongs to Abdul Aziz Khan. But before he took up playing the veena, the ustad was a sarangi player. In fact, he and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, who were friends, were both sarangi players, before one took to vocal music and the other to the veena. And there lies an interesting story behind this metamorphosis.

Once, while accompanying a famous singer of those times, Bade Ghulam failed to render the taan executed by the singer. And this happened more than once. The humiliation was too much for him to bear and he gave up the sarangi and took to vocal music. He also persuaded his friend Abdul Aziz to do the same.

Unlike the rudra veena, played mainly in the dhrupad style, the vichitra vena (also called the shiv veena) is played in the khayal gayaki ang. Like the sarangi, it can be played as a solo instrument, or could accompany vocalists.

Held on the ground, this instrument has no fixed pardas, no markings and is played with the help of a paperweight. A much more versatile instrument than the Saraswati veena, it moves with agility form the sombre to the light.

Ruing the paucity of beenkars, Raza concedes it is a difficult instrument to master, unlike the sitar and tabla. With royal patronage now a thing of the glorious past, laws of survival rule, leaving this grand old instrument struggling to make itself heard.

You aren't too surprised when Raza tells you that he has no disciples in India. He is willing to teach, even for free, but apparently there are few takers. "It has lots of listeners, but there are very few willing to master it." He says.

No Indian music company has ever chosen to record him. But he has a few CDs launched by English companies. ARC, a music company which has also realesed CDs to the late Ustad Nusrat Ali Khan, has even launched him. This CD went on to figure the US Top 10. His admirers and disciples hail form countries as distant as Estonia, Finland, Egypt and England.

A doctor of alternative medicine, Raza is now working with All India Radio's Vadya Vrind unit. And he strives so that his been may continue to be beard, till at least the next generation.