Arts Details Page

Nadaswaram

Nadaswaram is a very famous classical instrument played mainly in the southern states of India. The world's loudest non-brass acoustic instrument, Nadaswaram is also known as Nadhaswaram and Nagaswaram. It is a wind instrument, which is quite similar in its appearance to the North Indian musical instrument, Shehnai. However, Nadaswaram is much larger and has a hardwood body, along with a large flaring bell made of wood or metal. The South Indians consider Nadhaswaram to be a very auspicious instrument and make it a point to play it at the time of marriage. As per the information available with us, Nadaswaram is also played in almost all the major temples of South India. The instrument is usually played in pairs and is always accompanied by a pair of drums, known as Thavil. It is made up of mainly three parts, namely kuzhal, thimiru, and anasu. Traditionally, the body of the Nagaswaram used to be composed of the wood of a tree called aacha.