Reconstruction of the Ancient Thamizh Yazh and Hindustani Swaramandal using Carbon Fabric/ epoxy Matrix Composite Materials and patent filing is briefly described here.

1. RECREATION OF THE SWARMANDAL AND AN ANCIENT TAMIL
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT YAZH USING CARBON FIBRE / EPOXY MATRIX
COMPOSITES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE AND HERITAGE VALUES
AMAN CHAURE AND SAATWIK DIKSHIT
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
PROFESSOR PADMANABHAN KRISHNAN
DEPARTMENT OF MANUFACTURING
SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
VIT, VELLORE- 632014.
EMAIL: PADMANABHAN.K@VIT.AC.IN

2. The Swarmandal in Composites
• ‘Indian zither’ - most commonly used as an accompanying instrument for vocal Hindustani Classical Music.
(Zither : german instrument, cittern family).
• Swara (notes), and Mandal (group), representing its ability to produce a large number of notes.
• Traditionally made from ‘Tun’ wood.
• Measures from twenty-four to thirty inches in length, and twelve to fifteen inches in width.
• Singer may choose to employ any number of strings from 21 to 36.

3. Proposed Product and its functionalities (Commercially
Viable ) : The Yazh
• A harp used in ancient Tamil music, which is the ancestor of modern day Veena.
• An open-stringed polyphonous instrument, with gut strings, with a wooden boat-shaped skin-covered
resonator and an ebony stem.
• Thiruvalluvar, the legendary Tamil poet, mentions yazh in his work Thirukkural (around 200 BC). Many other
mentions also exist in sangam literature.
• Periyazh which is almost extinct but for a few museum pieces , has 21 strings.

4. Project Details
 The PI for the project is Prof. Padmanabhan Krishnan
 The sanctioned amount is Rs. 2 lacs
 Sanctioned Equipment/Consumables list
 A model wooden Swarmandal from a Kanpur supplier .Rs. 20,000/-
 Spare parts kit for Swarmandal and Yazh : Rs. 30,000/-
 Epoxy Resins, CNSL Resin, Hardeners, Fillers and Fibres for Swarmandal and Yazh: Rs.
50,000/-
 Cost of manufacture and bonding : Free at VIT.
 Outsourcing charges for musical assembly and testing : Rs. 25,000/-
 Visits to museums and musical artists for models and promotion: Rs. 25,000/-
 Cost of publishing and patenting : Rs. 2 lacs.
 Projected Cost Overrun : Rs. 1.5 lacs ( A later requirement )

5. Proposed Functionalities & Background of the
Product:
 The Yazh is an ancient musical instrument dating prior to 3rd century BC which was used
mainly in Tamil Folk/Traditional Music.
 This project aims to recreate the same instrument with the use of some modern-day
materials such as Carbon fibre / Epoxy composite.
 It has been found experimentally with impulse hammer test that the Carbon fibre / Epoxy
composite has a better natural frequency of vibration, resolution and signal strength than
the wood.
 That is the main reason for the use of carbon fibre / epoxy composite for the
manufacturing of a musical instrument with it.
 The sweetness and somewhere sharpness of the sound lies beneath the material and
design of this instrument.
 Many papers are published on the acoustic properties of the carbon Fibre composite, in
this project we have used those properties to regenerate an old and flourished instrument
with much enhanced properties.

6. Sengottu Yazh:
Courtesy: Chennai Egmore Museum

7. Bridges:

8. Internal Section:

9. Exploded View Video:

10. Thermocol mould for shells. Greased Mould
Layers of Carbon fibre

11. Vacuum bagging for Top plate and the
shells

12. The Strengthening of the top plate with
hard wood:
The two padak wood plates were bonded with epoxy
under the top plate for better strength without increasing
the weight.

13. Vacuum bagging for Arch:

14. Machining operation for arch:
 A special type of cutting tool, commonly known as pineapple cutter was used to
drill the holes Into the yazh arch and this cutter was also used to give the trimming
operations where ever it was required.
 The speciality of the tool is that it can chip and smoothen the edge simultaneously.
This is mainly achieved by its Dual helical diamond shaped cutting edges

15. The finished Yazh and the Inventor

16. Innovations: Bonded Assembly of SWARMANDAL…
16

17. Finished product : Swarmandal
A finished Carbon- Silk- Fly ash/Epoxy Matrix Swarmandal During Tests

18. Impulse hammer testing of Individual
components:
Carbon Fibre Silk Sample : 133.62Hz (First natural Freq) Carbon Fibre Sample: 140Hz (First Natural Freq)

19. A Few Firsts……
 The fifth Centuary Sengottu Yazh was revived using Carbon Silk Epoxy composites.
 First ever Composite Sengottu Yazh fabricated.
 Use of silk for Dampening the frequencies by widening of amplitude curve of the
natural frequency.
 State of the art vacuum bagging method followed.
 A double helical Diamond patterned pineapple router used for machining of the
composite laminates, shells and beams
 Natural Frequencies, Mode shapes and harmonics of the plate, shell and arch
determined through impulse hammer technique.
 Custom made brass bridges using EDM.
 Rigorous analysis of Impedence, conductance, admittance and decay time done
with related physics
 FEM approach adopted for natural frequencies and harmonics analysis
 First ever Composite Sengottu Yazh to be filed for Patent

20. References:
 https://rechneronline.de/musik/frequency-string.php
 https://wahiduddin.net/calc/calc_guitar_tension_from_size.htm
 https://www.gauging.com/customer-resources/film-calculators/calculate-film-thicknessgauge-by-
weight/
 (Springer Study Edition) Neville H. Fletcher, Thomas D. Rossing (auth.) - The Physics of Musical
Instruments-Springer New York (1991)
 Reconstruction of the Swaramandal using Carbon Fiber Epoxy Composites, project report submitted
by SAATTWIK DIKSHIT (12BME0085), SMEC, VIT Vellore.