RAVI

Since I am in India right now ... Our great Ravi Shankar passed away last year, an era which disappears.
  I attended one of his concerts in the 70s, I remember fondly his courage in trying to explain what is Classical Indian Music to a public of junkies ...

  In his wonderful book "My Music My Life", partly autobiographical, and especially devoted to Sitar, his instrument, there is, without comment, an image of an ancient harp or harp-zither from India, apparently from the nineteenth century or the early twentieth :

  The reproduction is not great, but you can still see how it looks, a bit like the Burmese harp, which is probably of Indian origin. It is a harp without pillar (what might suggest a pillar is the shadow of the neck...), like many Oriental and African harps.
  On the neck, there is a series of bridge pins, and the strings are wound around wooden pegs, very ornate, and arranged on top.
  On the body, a bridge, and probably a tailpiece below.
  What is curious, but anything is possible in India, is that this instrument seems to have disappeared...?
Dimensions? Tessitura? Gut strings or metal? One element could be useful, the spacing between strings, but deduct all other dimensions from there...
  I did some research with the Hindi name given by Ravi Shankar, "mandal Viladi nada" but nothing ... the term "mandal" (circle) indicates all kinds of circular objects, but no harp...
  Does anyone has already seen (and heard!) this device somewhere, or knows a bit more about this?