This practice was later denigrated during the Vijayanagara rule of Tamil Nadu in the 14th century AD, when the instrument was disparagingly renamed “Thappu,” a term associated with inauspiciousness.

“For my funeral, I know my son will play a parai that I crafted,” says K Dhandapani, seated in his house off the narrow Canal Street in Pulianthope’s Gurusamy Nagar. “But I don’t ...