It was strung with gut strings that ran from a curved ebony neck to a boat or trough-shaped resonator, the opening of which was a covered with skin for a soundboard.

[6] The sound bar beneath the soundboard, which the strings anchor to, was glued to the instrument's body with a lacquer called Arakku.

[8] Many major Tamil classical literary masterpieces written during Sangam period have mentioned the yazh.

Whatever relationship the words may or may not have linguistically, some researchers believe the mythological yali was carved into the tip of the yazh harp's neck.

A Sri Lankan Tamil legend recounts that a blind man Panan played on the Yazh so beautiful that he was given land from a king, which he named after himself, literally meaning "town of harper".

[16][17][18] Not only seen in literature, Yazh are found in sculptures in the Darasuram and Thirumayam temples in Tamil Nadu and also in Amaravathi village, Guntur district.