Verse Text
vaṁśī –
ardhāṅgulāntaronmānaṁ tārādi-vivarāṣṭakam |
tataḥ sārdhāṅgulād yatra mukha-randhraṁ tathāṅgulam ||368||
śiro vedāṅgulaṁ pucchaṁ try-aṅgulaṁ sā tu vaṁśikā |
nava-randhrā smṛtā sapta-daśāṅgula-mitā budhaiḥ ||369||
Translation
The vaṁsikā is seventeen fingers long with nine holes (12.75 inches). Eight holes for playing notes are half a finger in diameter and spaced half a finger apart. A hole for blowing is placed one and a half fingers from the eighth hole and is one finger in diameter. There are four fingers space remaining at the head of the flute and three fingers space remaining at the end of the flute.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
The phrase ardhāṅgulāntaronmānam (width of half a finger) means the distance between two holes. (There are seven spaces between eight holes). It is half a finger in diameter, which is also the dimension of the holes themselves. Instead of tataḥ sārdhāṅgulāt (at a distance of one and a half fingers) sometimes tato ’ṅgulyantare (at a distance of one finger) is found, but the former is correct, since that fits the description of the total length, which is seventeen fingers. Accepting a distance of one finger would bring the total length to sixteen and half fingers, making the flute half a finger short. Therefore, that version has no foundation.
Now the word aṅgulam is without indication of measurement. The ending mātra (measure) has been omitted because the word aṅguli is understood to be a unit of measure. Also, the word aṅguli changes to aṅgula at the end of a compound when preceded by a numeral or indeclinable. [Note: Pāṇini 5.4.86]
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
The vaṁśī flute is about fifteen inches long, with nine holes on its body. Kṛṣṇa used to play on these three flutes occasionally when they were needed.