I've always known the tanpura by the name tamboura.
I think there are two things at play, one, is that in the North they call it taNpura and in the South they call it a taMpura. Or possibly vice-versa. That plus inconsistant romanization of Devanagari script, and you have plenty of orthographical issues!
Haha yes. Thanks for clarifying!
I've come across YouTube videos of tanpuras where you can clearly hear the individual notes being plucked, like an ostinato, when surely they should blend into a spiral of sound, such as here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QX9a5-SS1AI could listen to this all day, in fact I probably will.
