The bansuri is not just a musical instrument, because it has a great cultural and religious significance among Hindus.  It is an instrument associated with Lord Krishna.  Numerous common names reflect these epitaphs of Krishna. Krishna and flute go together! Therefore another name for Lord Krishna is “Venugopal” and other Common name is like Venugopal, Bansilal, Murali, Muralidhar, etc. There are three kinds of flutes used by Krishna.


First is venu,

Second is murali,

And third is vamsi.



When Krishna started to play flute, the whole atmosphere becomes delightful. Flute is the wand of magic. Every ripple of flute leads you to amazing world of divine.  The flute is called Venu in Sanskrit. Venu is the word used for bamboo. Venu is an instrument made of bamboo reeds. It’s very small, not more than six inches long, with six holes for whistling.


 

The second type of Krishna’s flute is murali. Murali is about eighteen inches long with a hole at the end and four holes on the body of the flute. This kind of flute produces a very enchanting sound. The cows stop grazing the grass and stood motionless. The cowherd looked at the direction of the music. The birds flying above descended down. 


 

And the other name of krishna’s flute is Vamsi. The vamsi flute is about fifteen inches long, with nine holes on its body. Krishna‘s longer vamsi, which is called mahananda, or sammohini. When it is still longer it is called akarsini.When it is even longer it is called anandini.  

 

These flutes were sometimes bedecked with jewels. Sometimes they were made of marble and sometimes of hollow bamboo. When the flute is made of jewels it is called sammohini. When made of gold, it is called akarsini.