How she fell in love with thavil

As a young girl, Amirthavarshini Manishankar would accompany her parents to concerts and wonder why there was no female thavil player. She was told that the thavil requires greater physical strength than other percussion instruments such as the mridangam or ghatam. Driven to challenge this notion, she began learning the thavil at seven. Today, she is among the few women to play it, alongside M Sarojini and Lalitha Maneesha.Amirthavarshini hails from a musical family in Mannargudi, a town 40 km from Thanjavur, a major centre for Karnatik music. Her father plays the nadaswaram (a wind instrument), while her mother plays the violin. But it was the raw, loud, cracking sound of thavil beats she heard while accompanying her parents to concerts that drew her to the instrument. She trained under four gurus and is currently a student of T R Govindarajan. While her early gurus taught her the basics, Govindarajan shaped her technique and musical discipline.’Rakhi, music and dance’: School students in Shivamogga celebrate Raksha Bandhan with inmates of central prisonThe thavil is commonly played as an accompaniment to the nadaswaram in temples and at weddings. More recently, it has also found a place as a stage instrument. Shaped like a barrel, it is made of jackfruit wood and is 45 to 50 cm long. The drum heads, which are 30 to 40 cm in diameter, are made of water buffalo skin on the right and goat skin on the left. The right side is played with a stick, and the left with fingers covered in caps. Like most thavil players, Amirthavarshini began her lessons on the silamba kattai, a double-headed practice drum made of wood. “We don’t use finger caps in this case. Sollus (spoken rhythmic syllables) are easier to learn on this,” she recalls.She gave her first concert at nine, and her rise has been meteoric. At just 20, she has accompanied many senior artistes and performed in several countries, notably at the World Tamil Conference in Chicago. In February 2026, she was part of A R Rahman’s ‘Wonderment Tour’ concert in Chennai. “Rahman sir followed me on Instagram. Later, somebody from his office called me about the concert,” she recalls. A month later, she shared the stage with four other female artistes in a ‘Women Who Drum’ performance at the Mahindra Percussion Festival in Bengaluru. She is now set to play the thavil for two Hindi and Tamil films.Amirthavarshini has multiple interests. “I love exploring other genres, such as film music.” Moreover, she is pursuing degrees in law and fine arts and aspires to become an IAS officer alongside being a percussionist. “I also plan to start an NGO for the education of children,” she says.(The author is the founder of a tech company and writes about music and everyday life.)

Source: Deccan Herald