Balaswami Dikshitar, brother of the famous composer, Muttuswamy Dikshitar, was the first Indian musician to adapt the Western violin and popularize its use in Karnatic music. The flute is one of the oldest wind instruments. The bamboo flute, which is the most commonly used flute in South Indian classical music, is the best example of a nature-made instrument without detachable parts and a complicated mechanism. Flutes can also be made of ivory, sandalwood, ebony or metals such as silver and gold. It is usually a simple cylindrical tube of uniform bore, closed at one end.
Flutes vary in size from eight inches to two and one-half feet.
The larger flutes have a deep, bass tone whereas the shorter ones are high-pitched. The South Indian flute is about fourteen inches in length and three quarters of an inch in diameter. The closed end may be naturally so, i.e. closed by a node of the stem or it may be artificially sealed with cork or a stopper. Besides the mouth-hole there are eight finger holes of uniform size in a straight line. The finger holes are slightly smaller than the mouth hole.