The mass sentiment that the big C-shaped wind instrument just takes some blowing for those sweet notes to follow is nowhere close to what it demanded of Manish Gurav’s ancestors. “It is said that only one person in each generation is blessed with the gift of being able to play the tutari,” says Gurav, who is a part of the Shivkalin Tutari Lok-Kala Mandal in Jogeshwari. The Gurav community is known for their expertise with the instrument and come from cities such as Sangli, Satara, and Sangola in western Maharashtra. The tutari struck a high note after the Election Commission of India approved a man playing the instrument as the symbol for Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party. 

Legend has it that the tutari was discovered serendipitously: A farmer lost two beloved buffaloes and cut off their horns before cremation to keep as mementoes. As he mourned them clutching the horns, he noticed a small-hole at the end and blew into it curiously. A sonorous series of notes flowed that he learned to manipulate, and passed on to the next generation.