A frame drum of South India. It consists of a skin (usually iguana) stretched and pasted on a circular wooden frame. There are three or four slots in the side of the frame, in which bell-metal jingle-discs are suspended from metal cross-bars. The width of the drum is from 21 to 25 cm and the depth from 7 to 10 cm. The name kañjīrā probably relates to the khañjari and khañjani of North and East India. The kañjīrā is tuned to various pitches by wetting the skin. It is held at the bottom of the frame by the left hand, which also varies the tension of the skin, and is beaten with the fingers of the right hand.
P. Sambamoorthy: Catalogue of Musical Instruments Exhibited in the Government Museum, Madras (Madras, 3/1962)
B.C. Wade: Music in India: the Classical Traditions (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1979/R)
For further bibliography see India, §III
ALASTAIR DICK