Vinay Murali from Kerala is one of the handful of luthiers in India who handcrafts violins

Vinay Murali handcrafts violins, for which he makes the varnish and the glue at home. He works with his father Murali and brother Vijay out of a 100 sq ft studio in Chendamangalam near Kochi, Kerala.

Tucked away in a quiet part of Chendamangalam near Kochi in Kerala, is a tiny, barely-100 square foot workshop. Its longest wall is lined with tools and violins in various stages of production. The work table is littered with scales, tapes, and other measuring tools besides brass planers of multiple sizes, a container of glue and a file of measurement posters of violins. On the floor are pieces of wood that Vinay Murali, his father Murali ED, and younger brother Vijay, handcraft into violins. 

The smallness of the space is misleading, the violins made here cost ₹1.5 lakh and more. Each of these has found musicians across India. For instance, Kumaresh of the violinist duo Ganesh-Kumaresh, and Edappally Ajith Kumar use the violins made by the family. All the instruments are made using mostly natural materials including glue and varnish. The strings and the tailpiece are the only parts that he sources elsewhere.

Although the family started making these high-end violins seven years ago, Vinay has been making and repairing violins and guitars since the early 1980s. “A friend and I learnt to play the violin and the guitar respectively in 1980. One day, he gave me his violin to repair and that is how my tryst with violins started. Over the years, one violin led me to the next and the next…” says Murali.

They are a musical family, he adds. Vinay and Vijay have formally learnt to play the violin. Murali, their father, who learnt the guitar at Cochin Arts and Communication (CAC), is a self-taught violin player too.

“It helps if you know how to play the violin, just like how knowing how to drive helps a car mechanic,” chimes Vinay strumming the violin.  

When Murali started making violins, he made them using locally available, cheaper varieties of wood. Today though, three kinds of seasoned wood are used to make a violin — spruce, alpine maple and ebony. While spruce and alpine maple are imported from Germany, ebony is sourced locally as India and Sri Lanka are among the major exporters of ebony. Spruce is used for the soundboard and maple for the other parts. Ebony, a wood that is hard is limited to the finger-board and neck of the instrument because it is most prone to wearing off.

The wood is seasoned for at least 15 years and is done in two ways: it is dried naturally or kiln dried in a temperature-controlled environment. Since Vinay was once a carpenter, it is easy to figure out the nuances of the instrument, he says.