A South Asian term found in Sanskrit and the derived North Indian languages; it is often translated ‘bell’ but it also denotes, both historically and in different regions, other percussion or shaken metallophones.
In many of the modern North Indian languages the masculine form ghantā denotes the large suspended bell of the temple, and the feminine ghantī a handbell, either the medium-sized variety rung by the priests at certain points of temple ritual or the small bell of domestic worship. The Tamil term for a bell is mani, in Andhra Pradesh the bell is called ghantā and in Karnataka gante; the hāth ghantī (‘handbell’) is the equivalent in Orissa. The suspended temple bell with interior clapper is an essential element of the Hindu shrine: hung at the gateway of small open shrines or, in the large temples, in the foyer leading to the inner sanctum, it is rung by each approaching worshipper to invoke the deity. In the larger temples they can be very large. They are generally cast in bell-metal (kāmsya, or ksā). However, sometimes a special alloy known as saptadhātu (‘the sevenfold metal’) is used.
Another use of the term is for round percussion plaques. These relatively thick bell-metal plates of various sizes are suspended from the hand by a cord and beaten with a wooden stick; they are also called ghatī in Sanskrit. Of this type is the ghant of Orissa. These are used in the traditional context of temples and other religious places but can also appear in drum ensembles for dancing; above all, they are the traditional Indian clock on which the hours are beaten.
The term ghantā (and variants) may also denote gongs but not percussion trays with which they may be confused. The latter (the common Indian eating-tray used as a metallophone) are known by the generic term thālī. The Orissan ghanto is a gong made of bell-metal, about 22 cm in diameter, with a rear flange, inward-sloping and about 5 cm deep and half a cm thick. The front plate, almost imperceptibly convex, is thicker in the centre; this is emphasized by filing or scoring, creating a round, thicker central area about 12 cm in diameter, cross-scored in ellipse, and a thinner outer ring, scored circularly, parallel to the edge of the gong and about 5 cm wide. The outer half of the flange (but not the edge) and the corner are coated with dry black resin; a cord passes through two holes near the edge. The central and outer sections of the plate have different tones, but the ghanto, when properly struck in the centre, also produces a deep, slowly rising note. The kasar of Bengal is of similar construction. Bossed gongs are not typical of South Asia, except in the North-East, where they are used by Tibeto-Burman- and Thai-speaking peoples. The ghantā of the Santals of Orissa is a gong about 19 cm wide with a slightly outward-sloping rim 4 cm high. It is struck with a stick.
The Sanskrit term ghantī, or the diminutive ghantikā, can also denote small metal pellet bells, worn cosmetically or on various parts of the body for dancing (female dancers traditionally wear 101 bells and male dancers 151 around the lower legs). The spheres, of bell-metal, with a slit on one side and interior pellets of tiksna (probably cast-iron), are threaded on to strings by an integral ring at the top. Bells of this type are common throughout South Asia,known in North India as ghungrū. Another common type, consisting of hollow rings with multiple pellets, is the nūpur.
C. Marcel-Dubois: Les instruments de musique de l’Inde ancienne (Paris, 1941)
K.S. Kothari: Indian Folk Musical Instruments (New Delhi, 1968)
B.C. Deva: ‘The Santals and their Musical Instruments’, Jb für musikalische Volks- und Volkerkunde, viii (Cologne, 1977), 36–46
B.C. Deva: Musical Instruments of India (Calcutta, 1978)
ALASTAIR DICK/R