DRUMS OF
TABLA PAKHAWAJ MRIDAGAM KHOL
DHOLAK DHOLAKI DHOL TAVIL
DAMRU MADAL NAAL KANJIRA
INDIAN TASHA DRUM GHATAM NAGARA DUFF
DRUMS
OF
BY CHANDIRAMANI
India is a land of ancient
culture and traditions, in which dance, music, art, literature, architecture and handicraft etc.
play a very important role.
t
We have chosen to concentrate
on DRUMS OF
For other articles on Classic Literature
,Folk Tales , Music and dance ,visit www.chandiramani.com
Also visit G.L.Chandiramani
on google and yahoo.
E mail :
mrchandiramani@yahoo.com
Some association ,
corporate firm or TV should organize a
festival of drums of
ORIGION OF RHYTHM
Now
what is rhythm? The most basic rhythm is that of heart. The heart beats in a very Rhythmatic
fashion and you can count the beats.
The whole Universe rotates in a
Rhythm.
When we walk, that also is in a Rhythm
To start with, Rhythm was started by beating the ground with the feet; afterwards it was with the clapping of the hands. Sometimes, they would beat a tree, stone or a hard surface with the hands or with a stick to produce a Rhythm
Afterwards leather skins were added to the hollow woods and we had
an endless variety of drums. Many of them are not in vogue today.
How the counting of
rhythms started, nobody knows about it but evidently it is beyond doubt that
the first rhythm was of two beats. It is the most important Rhythm of the world
and even in tribal areas of
Slowly in
With time, one more
beat was added to the two beats and a basic Rhythm of three beats was evolved
Slowly permutations and combinations yielded a
rhythm of 5 beats, a combination of 2 beats and three beats.
Also of 7 beats , a combination of 3 and 4 beats,With
time, even 4 varieties of 7 beats were
evolved .
In due course, it was natural that numerous other combinations would be attempted
and perfected throughout the centuries.
So it has become a challenge for us to preserve our ancient drums,
as well as Side Rhythm Instruments along with our rhythms. This is something that we are trying to do and so far have already collected information on
16 drums .
.
HISTORY OF DRUM PLAYING:
Incidentally the earliest proof of drum
playing is in an Egyptian temple where they show Goddess Hather
, Goddess of Music, playing drums in a
frame ., Goddess Isis and Sekhmet were also known to play drums in a frame .
There are also scores of ancient drums in
South America , and
The
Chinese, Vietnamese and Indonesian have also ancient bronze drums.
Artefacts in
It is only in
In Panchatantra Classic written in 2 OO B.C in Sanskrit ,
there is a reference about the existence of 49 types of Rhythms. According to Bharatamuni*,
an ancient sage , music consists of seven notes, three scales, twenty-one
modulations, forty-nine rhythms and three speeds. There are also several Ragaas and Raginis* which have to
be sung at the proper time and season.
Refer to Panchatantra by Chandiramani
(Rupa & Co ) page 233 .
Classic Natya Shastra was also
written in 2OO B.C and
deals with Dance and Music.
ATTACHMENT
DRUMS OF
1 .
TABLA
Tabla consists of two drums, one for the left hand
and one for the right and accompanies classical vocal,Light vocal (Thumris) Ghazals as well as Bhajans and folk music.
Amir Khusroo is credited with the creation and development of Tabla .
A 22OO year Old Motif on a stone wall at Bhaja in Maharashtra shows a woman playing an instrument similar to Tabla .
It is one of our oldest drums It is a barrel shaped drum with leather skin on both the sides .
Phakhawaj is played with our most ancient type of singing namely Dhrupad and Dhamar and Bhajans.
The most ancient drum in India is called Dundhubi, the earthenware drum. The word Pakhawaj is derived from Pakha which means Pure and Awaj means the sound . Pakhawaj finds mention in Mahabharat and Natya Shastra ( Written in 2OO B.C) Without doubt , it is the king of Indian drums .
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. MRIDAGAM
It is the main drum of
______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _ 4.
KHOL
In eastern
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5 . DHOLAK
It Is
usually played with
folk music and other type of light music.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 DHOLAKI
It is also played in folk music and other
types of light music .
7 DHOL
It has an
appearance of a barrel with
leather skin attached to the Sides. It accompanies
the fiery Bhangra in Punjab,Raas in Gujarat and folk music in Rajasthan and
other places in
It is
played with wooden sticks
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8 . TAVIL
This
drum is played in south
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------
9
DAMRU
This percussion instrument is associated with the cosmic
dance of Lord Shiva The two
threads attached to the drum have beads at the end and when
rotated with the hand touch the lather skin on both the sides and produce a peculiar musical sound .
The villagers make monkeys dance to the accompaniment of Damru ..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1O MADAL
It is a two faced d rum. Both sides are used . It is usually played with dance and folk music.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. NAAL
It is also a two faced drum
played with both the hands
12
KANJIRA
It is played in
--- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13 . INDIAN
TASHA DRUM
Hand-made
terracotta with a goat-skin head. This is a traditional Indian drum that can be played
with the hand or with the bamboo beaters.
Includes
a beautifully carved wood tripod .stand and a pair of bamboo beaters.
|
|
|
14 . GH ATAM
It is made of clay .There is an opening of the top .One plays at the top with
both the hands, In some cases , the opening is covered by the belly of the
musician and he strikes the Ghatam to produce various
sounds.
Ghatam is used
mainly with South Indian Music . Also Sind
uses it extensively with folk music.It is called Matko in
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15 .NAGARA
NAGARA is played in the (magrib) at sunset in Dargahs (mosques ) or as an announcement about the arrival of a royal personality .
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 DUFF
Duff
has
a leather skin on the frame and rings
and bells are in the frame. It is played with light music .
There are so many drums in
However Contributions
for different drums are welcome .Can anyone send us
photos of Hudki and Dimri?
.
Information about other drums
with photos will be appreciated.