An Indian name, in use for over two millennia, for tuned, finger-played, double-headed drums, primarily elongated barrel drums, which accompany Hindustani and Karnatak music. In earlier periods they were used in theatre music, and since that time they have been employed in concert forms and more elaborate styles of temple and devotional music.
Like the even more ancient and historically comprehensive chordophone name vīnā, the Sanskrit mrdanga indicates a certain musical status in Indian tradition as much as it does particular types of drum. The tuned barrel drum of Karnatak music preserves the name as mrdangam or mirutankam; that of Hindustani music, while often called mrdang or mirdang, may also be found as pakhāvaj. The mrdanga or khol of the East (Bengal, Orissa, Assam) and its relative the pung of Manipur accompany primarily the complex devotional music kīrtan. This tradition of music and drumming was once widespread with regional variation throughout South Asia, but is now obscured by the comparatively recent blanket permeation of the modern northern and southern schools.
The only detailed textual source for the early mrdanga is the Nātyaśāstra. This gives some details of a composite barrel-drum set called mrdanga in the chapter on membranophones, also listing as elements of an ensemble the three puskara (‘rainclouds’), the waisted drum panava and the pot-drum dardura.
Marcel-Dubois (Les instruments de musique de l'Inde ancienne, Paris, 1941) draws attention to a pair of barrel drums frequently seen in the sculpture of the 2nd century bc: one is placed vertically before the seated player, the other rests horizontally, or leans diagonally against the player’s left hip, to give three playing heads in all. A few centuries later we find a three-drum set, with two drums standing vertically, giving four heads. The mrdanga were probably made of clay. The right, upright drum ūrdhvaka tapers at the ends, and is said to be four tāla (probably a hand-span) long, and 14 fingers in diameter at the head. The horizontal drum ānkika is three and a half tāla long, and its head (or heads) 12 fingers wide. The left vertical drum (ālingya) is truncated-conical shaped, and is said to be three tāla long, with a face eight fingers across. These descriptions do not always tally with ancient depictions. The skins (candraka: ‘little moon’) are of cowhide, white and unblemished, and soaked in cold water overnight before being scoured with mild cow-dung. They are single, not three-layered as has been stated, but wrapped in a threefold arrangement around the hoops (kaksā) with a criss-cross lacing (svastika).
The greatest interest attaches to the ‘wiping’ (mārjanā), or tuning, of the heads. This is done preferably with black earth from a river bank, which is smooth when squeezed free of water, and is neither too heavy or solid nor permeated or containing impurities. A dough of wheat or barley flour, or a mixture of these, can be used as an alternative, but this is said to give a monotonous sound. In the absence of further data, we may think of these as wet tuning-loads, like the dough on the left face of the modern mrdangam, which lowered the pitch of the skin rather than giving it a pitch rich in harmonics like that of the hard pastes for right-hand faces of the modern drums.
The pastes may derive from the need, which arises because of the interlacing of the two heads, to adjust the pitch of the second head after the first has been tuned. Thus, paste is prescribed in the Nātyaśāstra only for the left head of the ānkika (the only drum of the set played on both heads).
There are three tunings, which relate to the top, right and left heads of the older two-piece mrdanga: mayūrī (‘peacock’), consisting of 4th, tonic and 3rd on the top, right and left heads, respectively; ardhamayūrī (‘half-peacock’), with 6th, 2nd and 1st; and karmāravī (an obscure word, perhaps meaning ‘the roar of work’ but denoting also a melodic mode-species, jāti) with 5th, 1st and 2nd. These are referred to the three ancient parent-scales, the madhyama-, sadja- and gāndhāra-grāma, respectively. The top head takes the 4th, 5th or 6th of the scale: octave registers are not given, and it may be that, since they apply to the largest drum with the widest head, these degrees should be understood as being below the 1st of the scale. The right head takes the 1st or 2nd degree, and the left the 1st, 2nd or 3rd, generally above the right. Earth is not applied to the right head; an application (rohana) of sesamum-paste, cow-butter and oil may be applied only to the ānkika. The head of the third drum, ālingya, is said to be tuned to the 7th (the only note not covered in the three tunings).
The mrdanga were mostly played with different hand-stroke qualities (rather than with the fingers) in sequential patterns from head to head. They were called mārga (‘way’), and there were four: addita, top and ālingya; ālipta, left and top; vitasta, top and right; and gomukha, the different heads mixed mostly with ālingya. They are classified into three ‘progressions’ (pracāra): ‘regular’ (sama) when the left is used on top, left or ālingya, and right on right; ‘irregular’ (visama) when the right is used on top or ālingya; and regular-irregular when the striking is cross-handed.
Two characteristic aspects of Indian drumming are already strikingly evident in the Nātyaśāstra. Firstly the drum syllables are based in large part on guttural, retroflex, flap and dental consonants, as they still are. Secondly the rather large variety of tonal colours implied by so many drum syllables is produced with the same techniques that are still used. The five basic strokes (pāni-prahata) are full hand, half hand, quarter hand, side of the hand and forefinger. The five strokes can be made with three degrees of prahāra (damping): fully damped, half-damped or undamped. Each individual combination of stroke and damping corresponds with one or more ways of hitting the drumhead.
The medieval inheritor of the mrdanga tradition, as represented in sources such as the Sangīta-ratnākara (13th century), is termed mardala, though this is equated with the older mrdanga or muraja. The root for this word and mrdanga is the same. The mardala body differs somewhat from that of the older mrdanga barrel drums, and it has become a single double-headed drum (the old drum-sets becoming rare from around the 8th century); it enters into this tradition by virtue of its paste-tuned heads.
The Sangīta-ratnākara describes the mardala as made of citrus (bīj) wood, about 42 cm long, with a wall about 1 cm thick. The right face is about 26 cm in diameter, the left about 28 cm. Here the modern tradition of a smaller, higher pitched, right head appears to have been reached.
The skins are single and are prescribed as thick and round, about 2 cm larger than their drumheads; no hoops are attached, but they are pierced all round with 40 holes, and laced together by a leather strap (vadhra). This shows now its upper, now its lower side in a pattern called vignikā (‘recoiling, zigzag’?) by Śārngadeva and karpara by Simhabhūpāla (late 14th century). Two plaited leather rings are tightened over the skins near the head, and to them is attached a doubled holding-band (kacchā) with a decorative border of silk threads which is worn around the hips, like that of the contemporary barrel drum pataha. A thick tuning-paste made by mixing a glue of boiled rice with ash and pounding them together was applied to both heads.
The first lessons for the Hindustani mndang-pakhāvaj descend from Sangīta-ratnākara: tā dīn thūn nā, and patterns with filler strokes based on them. In this there is a resemblance with the South Indian mrdangam traditions. Beyond these first, obviously anciently embedded, stages the traditions diverge.
The mrdang of North and Central India (also spelt or pronounced mirdang) is frequently called pakhāvaj, a medieval name. This name is not recorded in the 13th-century Sangīta-ratnākara, though other drums are given there with local variant names consisting partly of āvaja or āvaj.
The name pakhāvaj would have been established in the later medieval (Delhi Sultanate) period, for it is recorded in the late 16th-century Mughal Ā’īn-i-akbarī, which states that it was ‘held under one arm’. The use of the pakhāvaj is here recorded either for the Krsna devotees, the kīrtanīya (Brahmin precentors) and the bhagatīyā, or for the dancing-masters natvā and the lower class of entertainers kañjarī (these are all said to be of the Malva-Gujarat region). Two pakhāvaj are the drums in the aristocratic house-music (akhārā) of this period. The modern pakhāvaj tradition has two main contexts: the temple and the concert platform, formerly in the courts and more recently the public hall. These would connect with the earlier traditions of use in kīrtan devotional music and the court akhārā.
Little is known of the development of the composite drumheads which are seen on all three modern regional mrdanga of North, South and East with only small differences of detail. It would seem, however, that it combines the principle of the tuning-paste of the older mrdanga-mardala drums with that of the double skin recorded for the deśī or local pataha barrel drum of medieval times.
The modern pakhāvaj is of wood. Many shapes and sizes (chosen or made, as with most Indian instruments, to fit the player) are found. Modern sources still refer to the three shapes defined for the ancient mrdanga; however, the most common shape is perhaps an asymmetrical biconical barrel (though a symmetrical bulging barrel is also found). The shell tapers to the ends from a ridge near to the left-hand head.
The skins of the pakhāvaj drumhead (purī) are mostly of goat, previously cleaned by soaking in lime and water. The main right skin is thinner than the left. Over both is stretched a thinner skin, and the two are bound together to a four-ply plaited leather hoop (gajrī). The latter is somewhat larger than the drumhead and when tensioned is a little lower than the rim; one or two thick skin rings are stitched under the main skins on to the hoop to protect the drumhead from the edge of the barrel. The greater part (between two-thirds and three-quarters) of the thin upper skin is cut away, leaving an outer ring extending a little from the drum-rim over the cavity on each head. This is called cati (cati: ?‘slap’) or kinā (‘edge’). To the greater, exposed area of the lower, main skin on the right head is applied a round, black tuning-paste in several, progressively smaller, layers. The essential element in this is iron oxide mixed in a glue of boiled rice, and according to Śarmā (Tāl Prakāś, Hathras, 2/1963), blue vitriol (copper sulphate, nīlathothā) is also present, while other sources specify a mangosteen tar (gāb). Many sources state that the paste contains metal filings. However, this would be highly abrasive and it would not adhere. The area of the main skin below the paste is first scraped with a blade; the paste is then applied layer by layer, each rubbed smooth with a stone when almost dry and dried before application of the next (there are commonly five layers).
There are thus three areas on the right face, the edge (cati), the middle (lav: ‘bit’; sur: ‘pitch’) and the black (siyāhi, syāhi). The first two occur about a quarter each of the head, the black about half. Because whole-hand and whole-head strokes predominate on the pakhāvaj, and also because one head when struck makes the other vibrate, these are less specific in pitch and timbre difference than on the tablā, and all areas of the head may be played both resonant (‘open’) or non-resonant (‘closed’). The main right open pitch is tuned to the singer’s or melody instrument’s tonic. The left head has no permanent paste, but a pancake of wheat-dough is applied for each performance, lowering the pitch to an octave below that of the right head.
The two heads are interlaced by a leather strap (tasmā) laced in a V through 16 holes in either hoop. The skins are tensioned by eight large wooden cylinders (gattā), one under each V, to the left side of the drum between the ridge and the head. The right head is fine-tuned by means of a small hammer struck on the hoop.
The modern pakhāvaj is usually placed horizontally on the floor before the seated player with the right end resting on a folded cloth. The principal strokes on either side are whole-hand strokes. Strokes are called bol, denoting both the action and its notational syllable. These vary according to context, the real notational group being the phrase. Śarmā (op. cit.) classifies the right-hand strokes as basically five, the left as two; of these, only two (left-hand gha, right-hand ta; the vowel length varies) are regarded as invariable (acal) in notation and position. The two main resonant, or ‘open’ (khulā), strokes on the right are tā (a ‘slap’, also called thāp), given by the upper (lateral) edge of the hand on the top half of the drum-face, pivoting on the lower (medial) side of the palm to damp the sound slightly; and dī, a forceful tap, immediately rebounding, with four or three fingers on the centre of the siyāhi. These two strokes give two different timbres of the system tonic. Also resonant is nā, a strong tap with the top of the right index (or other finger) on the edge of the head. The right two-stroke roll kitī (kita, tītī, tira) is made with the second and third fingers plus the thumb on the centre of the siyāhi; these are held down and are ‘closed’ (band), that is, non-resonant. A similarly made but resonant double or triple stroke on the edge is called nanāna or tarānā.
Of the two main left-hand strokes, ghā (resonant) is a strong tap, immediately rebounding, on the whole head (partly on the dough) with the top of the hand, while closed kat is a flat-hand, held-down stroke on the whole head. Ghā played simultaneously with a right-hand stroke (e.g. tā or tita) changes the notation to dh-, thus dhā or dhita.
This version of the double-headed barrel drum is used mainly in the performance of Karnatak music, found in the four southern states of India (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka).
The wooden body of the drum varies between 50 and 70 cm in length depending on the range of pitches desired. It is cylindrical, tapering for approximately half its length; the diameters of the two heads are about 18 and 21 cm. On both heads the wooden rim slopes inward, the angle being shallower on the smaller of the two. Each has a membrane of monkey skin: on the smaller this membrane is covered with another of calfskin with a circular hole (7 to 8 cm in diameter) at the centre; on the larger is a similar but double membrane of calfskin with a hole of 11 to 12 cm. These extra membranes (mīttu) are attached to the stretching mechanism by means of a circle of holes located just beyond the edge of the rim. Through these holes pass strips of bullock hide which are tightly woven into a ring approximately 1·5 cm thick.
At 16 equidistant points on each rim a gap is forced in the weave, allowing a single thong of bullock hide, approximately 20 metres long, to pass through and connect the two rims at each end of the drum. The monkey-skin membranes on each face are laced to the mīttu so that, by tightening the thong of bullock hide, the membranes are stretched over each head. As the thong slackens through use, up to 16 cylindrical wooden pegs are inserted between the thong and the wooden body of the drum to sustain the tension.
On the smaller head, nearly all the exposed area of monkey skin is covered by a circular patch of black tuning-paste made from a mixture of powdered waste-iron and rice; the patch is nearly 0·5 cm thick, tapering towards the edges. Two dozen or so split reeds are inserted between the mīttu and the membrane beneath; these add a characteristic ‘buzz’ to the timbre of the smaller head. No split reeds are used on the larger head, on which the drum rests when not in use. Mrdangam players sometimes make a temporary tuning-paste from a lump of wet soji (a type of flour) to apply to the larger head before a performance.
The
absolute pitch (śruti) of the drum varies according to the
preference of the principal performer within the ensemble. Absolute pitch is
reckoned in semitones ascending from middle C of the even-tempered harmonium.
The absolute pitch of a mrdangam may be altered by up to two-and-a-half
semitones by striking the tightly woven rings with a round stone and wooden peg
to alter the head tension. Most players possess two instruments, enabling an
absolute pitch range from śruti 2 to 7 (D
to F
). Some male vocalists require śruti 1
(C) and a few players possess instruments capable of this pitch.
The mrdangam player usually sits cross-legged on a mat with the drum resting on its side in front; the right hand strikes the smaller head and the left hand the larger. The drum rests against the right shin, the right foot forming a cradle for the larger head, and the left knee rests on the drum, holding it in position. Sometimes a rolled-up piece of cloth is inserted beneath the drum near the right-hand head in order to tilt it upwards.
Seven basic strokes are recognized. The left head (with the right head damped) may be struck in the centre of the membrane with four fingers together (the pitch may be altered through an octave by varying the striking position); it may also be struck on the mīttu (on the side nearest the player), again with four fingers together but with the first joints of the fingers. For the right head (with the left head damped), the player may strike the mīttu near the rim (on the side nearest the player) with the first joint of the forefinger, or the exposed membrane between the mīttu and the tuning-paste with the first joint of the forefinger. The tuning-paste itself may be struck with the middle and ring fingers together (using the first joints of the fingers), with the first joint of the forefinger, or with the end of the little finger (this is executed with a quick flick of the wrist and produces a characteristically resonant sound).
Each stroke produces a distinct timbre. In the second and fifth types of stroke the pitches produced are indeterminate; the other five strokes produce more determinate pitches and relationships. The lowest pitch produced in the first type is an octave below sadja (the system tonic); the third type produces sadja, and the fourth a (less distinct) semitone above; the sixth a (barely distinct) 5th above and the seventh sadja with a prominent second harmonic. The first and fifth strokes combined produce an indistinct but very low pitch; this is reckoned as a separate stroke. The mīttu strokes require a great deal of force, causing permanent calluses on the finger joints. The different strokes are described and transcribed by means of syllables (such as tā, dhī, tom, nam), some of which differ from region to region, and the player learns the instrument in terms of patterned combinations of strokes (jāti). See also India, §III, 6(iii); for bibliography see India, §III.