A ''thavil'' (

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

: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 beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. It is also widely used in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a 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 regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

Tamilnadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language— ...

and

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and 35 ...

States of

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union terr ...

. It is used in temple, folk and

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

, often accompanying the '' nadaswaram''. The ''thavil'' and the ''nadaswaram'' are essential components of traditional festivals and ceremonies in South India. Thavilplayer

In folk music contexts, a pair of wider, slimmer sticks are sometimes used.

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the ...

is famous for ''thavil'', so called ''Thanjavur Thavil''. In

Kollywood Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood ...

Filmi Filmi ("of films") music soundtracks are music produced for India's mainstream motion picture industry and written and performed for Indian cinema. In cinema, music directors make up the main body of composers; the songs are performed by playba ...

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

Paruthiveeran ''Paruthiveeran'' () is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by Ameer. The film stars Karthi in his feature film debut as the title character, with Priyamani as the female lead and Ponvannan, Saravanan, Ganja ...

", " 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 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 (''Artocarpus heterophyllus''), also known as jack tree, is a species of tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family ( Moraceae). Its origin is in the region between the Western Ghats of southern India, all of Bangladesh, ...

wood. Layers of animal skin (

water buffalo The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called the domestic water buffalo or Asian water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, North America, So ...

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

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

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 is a white flour from the Indian subcontinent, made from wheat. Finely milled without any bran, refined, and bleached, it closely resembles cake flour. is used extensively for making fast foods, baked goods such as pastries, bread, several varie ...

. The left head is played with a short, thick stick made from the wood of the portia tree. 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 Haridwaramangalam A. K. Palanivel (1948 in Tamil Nadu, India) is an artist of the Indian drum thavil. A. K. Palanivel first learnt thavil drumming under the tutelage of his father S. Kumaravel. From 1959 onwards, he was given extensive training ...

* 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 * 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

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