Wikipedia
Gottuvadhyam
The chitravina (also known as chitra veena, chitraveena, chitra vina, hanumad vina, or mahanataka vina, is a 20 or 21-string fretless lute in Carnatic music. Around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it started to be known by another name, Gotuvadyam (often mis-spelt as gottuvadyam, gottuvadhyam, kottuvadyam etc.), which was bestowed upon it by Sakha Rama Rao from Tiruvidaimarudur, who was responsible for bringing it back to the concert scene.
Today it is played mainly in South India, though its origins can be traced back to Bharata's Natya Shastra (200 BCE-200 CE), where it is mentioned as a seven string fretless instrument. Sarangadeva (1210–47) also made a similar reference to the chitravina in his work, Sangita Ratnakara.