A ''thavil'' (

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

:தவில்) or ''tavil'' is a barrel-shaped

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. It is also widely used in other

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

n states (

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

) as well as in the North and East of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

(in the Tamil majority area called

Tamil Eelam Tamil Eelam (, ''tamiḻ īḻam''; generally rendered outside Tamil-speaking areas as தமிழ் ஈழம்) is a proposed independence, independent sovereign state, state that many Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lan ...

). It is used in temple,

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

and

Carnatic music Carnatic music (known as or in the Dravidian languages) is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and southern Odisha. It is o ...

, often accompanying the ''

nadaswaram The ''nadaswaram'' is a double reed wind instrument from South India. It is used as a traditional classical instrument in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala and in the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka. This i ...

''. The ''thavil'' and the ''nadaswaram'' are essential components of traditional festivals and ceremonies in South India. In folk music contexts, a pair of wider, slimmer sticks are sometimes used. In Tamil

Filmi Filmi () music soundtracks are music produced for India's mainstream motion picture industry and written and performed for Cinema of India, Indian cinema. In cinema, List of Indian film music directors, music directors make up the main body of c ...

songs, thavils are mostly used. Notable movies: " Thillaanaa Mohanambal", " Paruthiveeran", " Karagattakaran", "

Sarvam Thaala Mayam ''Sarvam Thaala Mayam'' () is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language musical drama film written and directed by Rajiv Menon. The film stars G. V. Prakash Kumar and Aparna Balamurali, with a supporting cast including Nedumudi Venu, Vineeth, Kumaravel, ...

History

Thavil is a traditional musical instrument of the ancient city of

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also known as Thanjai, previously known as Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 12th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of southern Indian religion, art ...

in Tamil Nadu. It is an integral part of the Carnatic music in Thanjavur. It is mostly made in Thanjavur and Valayapatti.

Physical components

The ''thavil'' consists of a cylindrical shell hollowed out of a solid block of

jackfruit The jackfruit or ''nangka'' (''Artocarpus heterophyllus'') is a species of tree in the Common fig, fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family (Moraceae). The jackfruit is the largest tree fruit, reaching as much as in weight, in length, and in d ...

wood. Layers of animal skin (

water buffalo The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called domestic water buffalo, Asian water buffalo and Asiatic water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also kept in Italy, the Balkans ...

on the right, goat on the left) are stretched across the two sides of the shell using

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a plant in the botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial and consumable use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest ...

hoops attached to the shell. The right face of the instrument has a larger diameter than the left side, and the right drum head is stretched very tightly, while the left drum head is kept loose to allow pitch bending. The larger face is higher in pitch than the smaller face. The modern Thavil has a corpus that is bordered by a steel ring coated in plastic on which the two skins are fixed by metal straps. Both skins can be separately tuned.

Methods of use and posture

The instrument is either played while sitting, or hung by a cloth strap (called ''nadai'') from the shoulder of the player. The right head is played with the right hand, wrist and fingers. The player usually wears thumb caps on all the fingers of the right hand, made of hardened glue from

maida flour Maida, ''maida flour'', or ''maida mavu'' is a type of wheat flour originated from the Indian subcontinent. It is a super-refined wheat flour used in Indian cuisine to make pastries and other bakery items like breads and biscuits. Some maida may ...

. The left head is played with a short, thick stick made from the wood of the

portia tree ''Thespesia populnea'', commonly known as the portia tree (), Pacific rosewood, Indian tulip tree, or milo, among other names, is a species of flowering plant belonging to the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is a tree found commonly on coasts ar ...

. It is not uncommon for left-handed players to use the opposite hands, and some nadaswaram groups feature both a right- and a left-handed thavil player.

Veteran thavilists

Some master thavil players: *Thirumulaivayil Muthuveer Pillai *Thirumulaivayil Shanmugavadivel Pillai * Valangaiman A. Shanmugasundaram Pillai * Kalaimamani Thirucherai.T.G.Muthukumaraswamy Pillai * Valayapatti A. R. Subramaniam * Haridwaramangalam A. K. Palanivel * Vellore Dr. P.R.M. Venkateshan * Dakshinamoorthy - Jaffna or Yaazhpaanam - Shri Lanka * Needamangalam Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai * Thirunageshwaram Subramanian Pillai * Bhusurapalli Adisheshaiah * Iluppur Panchami * Kumbakonam Thangavel Pillai * Natchiarkoil Raghava Pillai * Perumpallam P Venkatesan * Needamangalam Shanmugavadivel * Valangaiman Shanmugasundaram Pillai * Thiruvalaputhur T A Kaliyamurthy * Tanjore T. R. Govindaraj * Shanmugam Thavil - Puducherry * Thiruppungur T. G. Muthukumarasamy * Mannaarkudi Thiru M. R. Vasudevan * Thirumaignanam Narayanasamy Pillai * Valiyambakkam V. M. Ganapathy * Gurumurthy Pandithar -

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

References

External links

Thavil Maestro Haridwaramangalam Sri. A.K. Palanivel
{{Authority control Membranophones Carnatic music instruments Tamil music Percussion instruments played with specialised beaters Hand drums Asian percussion instruments