Gottuvadyam is a musical instrument that is structured exactly
like Veena but without frets. This unlike Veena is played with a wooden stick called
Kottu, and hence was called Kottu Vadyam. This name has eventually become Gottuvadyam.
It has a total of 20 strings, five on the upper layer
used for playing music and three strings for the drone tunes for tala as seen in
Veena. Below the playing strings are seen the other twelve sympathetic strings which form
the lower layer. Music is played on the upper five strings with Kottu.