In a small, sparse workshop in Chennai, Tharun Sekar spends hours building and perfecting the yazh. A distant cousin of the harp, the 2,000-year-old instrument was once a mainstay in royal courts, and produced “the sweetest sound.” Then, it disappeared, preserved only in historical texts—until now. The yazh is one of a handful of lost or obscure folk instruments that Sekar, 24, has been recreating in a studio he began in 2019. It takes Sekar five to six months to build a yazh. Each handcrafted instrument is made from a…
