Radhika Veena Sadhika

Radhika Umdekar Budhkar also known as Radhika Veena Sadhika is a vichitra veena player and veena teacher from Madhya Pradesh, India. She is the world's first woman vichitra veena player.

Biography Sadhika comes from a family of musicians who migrated to Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh several generations ago. Her grandfather Balabhau Umdekar was a trained vocalist in Gwalior Gharana. He was also the court musician of Scindias, the rulers of the then princely state of Gwalior. Similarly, her father Shriram Umdekar who is a sitar and rudra veena player, used to play and teach sitar, surbahar and rudra veena. While the traditional vichitra veena is 5 feet long and weighs 5 kg, Radhika's version is only 48 inches long and weighs 2 kg. Besides performances, she also teach veena at the Veena Venu Art Foundation at Navi Mumbai.