Tread along the narrow Judge Sankaranarayanan road near Pazhavangadi. Sweet notes of thavil greet your ears as Venugopal’s dexterous fingers against the broad surface of thavil in swift rhythm. The delicate, subtle, fine waves of the tala ascend to a crescendo leaving its trills suspended for a while. “I have been playing thavil since six decades. Still I practice for a few hours a day” said Venugopal with a gentle smile.

“The instrument is awfully heavy. I cannot carry it on my shoulder any more. So I accept only concerts where one can sit and play” he admits.
Venugopal belongs to a family of musicians based at Nanchinadu.
Born in Kumarakoil, he went to Eraniyal to learn thavil under Kaintha Pillai Swamy and had advanced training under Tiruchendur Nainar Swami, a great master.

Being a pupil of Nainar Swamy had many advantages. Nagaswaram and clarinet players preferred well disciplined accompanists, which they found in all the disciples of Nainar Swamy. Thus I too enjoyed all the privileges and chances poured in. I could accompany pioneer artistes like, Kanyakumari Sudalayandi Kambar, Tiruchendur Chinna Subbaiah, Pathamadai Raja, A K C Natarajan [clarinet], Nagerkoil Ganesa Kambar, Thiruvizha Jayasankar, Kandiyoor Sivasankaran, Chengannur Sivasankara Panicker and Oachira Sivadas. My brother Kottar Ramachandra Bhagavathar is the disciple of Dr. Balamurali Krishna.
It was around three decades ago that I came to this place, when I was short listed for the post of percussionist at the Sree Padmanabha Temple. Violin maestro Chalakkudi Narayana Swami was the judge. There were seven contestants. We are asked to accompany the nagaswaram artiste” he paused for a while and continued: “Here I must tell you something. The seven principal
talas give rise to 35 varieties on account of the pancha jathi bhedas and each in turn gives rise to five kinds on account of pancha gati bhedas. Thus all together there are 175 talas. The one which was rendered did not figure in the list. The songs rendered were the varnams in Sankarabharanam and Kambhodi set to a tala unknown to us. We have not heard it before. In the initial round we could not maintain the balance of the music. We were puzzled. I could play close to the tala and was appointed as the thavil artiste. We have not named the tala so far. Once Namagiri Pettai Krishnan the legendary nagaswaram artiste happened to hear this tala and wondered. After the performance he approached us and learned it. No were in India you can find this combination remarked Namagiri Pettai.”

Venugopal under went training to the codified pattern of music at the temple.

Thavil are made in Thajavoor. Traditional leather straps are now being replaced by stainless steel ones which add weight to the instrument.
“When the body Sree Chithira Tirunal was taken to the funeral pyre, we paid our last honors to the great man by rendering Mukhari, a raga which can evoke Karuna rasa” reminisced Venugopal.