Remember the recorder? It's that small plastic instrument — looks kind of like a flute or clarinet — that's often the first instrument children learn to play in school. Or, at least, they used to. But ...

Remember the recorder? It’s that small plastic instrument — looks kind of like a flute or clarinet — that’s often the first instrument children learn to play in school. Or, at least, they used to. But ...

The sounds of a harp-like instrument called the yazh, named for the mythological animal Yali whose image was carved into its stem, once filled the halls of temples and royal courts in southern India.