Part of Carnatic Classical
Carnatic instrumental music is South Indian classical music played on veena, violin, flute and mridangam. Instrumentalists play the same songs as singers, in a singing style.
Historical Timeline
The ghatam is often called one of India's oldest percussion instruments, though no source read gives it a datable anchor. Open Magazine dates the tuned concert ghatam to the late 19th century, and the Darbar trust places its arrival on classical stages in the early 20th. In 1891 C. R. Day described the gatha, a large earthen jar held with its small mouth downward, which Telugu musicians used to accompany the vina. A 1930 account by Umayalpuram Sundara Iyer traced the move from local pots to ghatams made for playing in Panruti and Manamadurai, and Open Magazine describes Manamadurai as the only centre that still flourishes.
T. H. Vikku Vinayakram, born in 1942, learned from his father, T. R. Harihara Sharma. He began on the mridangam, gave his first performance at 13 and in 1966 played ghatam with M. S. Subbulakshmi in the United States. He received the Padma Shri in 2002 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.
Folk Origins
The ghatam begins as a folk instrument, and ordinary pots serve as drums until potters make pots for the concert, as Umayalpuram Sundara Iyer's 1930 account records.
Into the concert hall
In 1891 Charles Russell Day described the gatha, an ordinary earthen pot that accompanied the veena. Open Magazine places the tuned concert ghatam in the same late-19th-century decades.
Music Academy stage
The Music Academy, Madras, first allows secondary percussion in 1947, when Alangudi Ramachandran accompanies M. S. Subbulakshmi at a concert. The ghatam, kanjira and morsing are the usual secondary drums beside the mridangam.
International Recognition
T. H. Vikku Vinayakram plays the ghatam with Shakti, alongside John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain and L. Shankar, and makes the instrument widely known. He plays on Mickey Hart's Planet Drum, which wins Best World Music Album at the 34th Grammy Awards in 1992.
Playing Techniques
Clay and Metal Composition
A concert ghatam is fired clay mixed with metal. Krishnaswami names iron filings, and Giridhar Udupa, a practising ghatam player, describes Manamadurai pots with small brass shards in the clay. Udupa finds these pots heavy and thick-walled, with a sharp metallic ring that players credit to the local soil. Typical ghatams weigh about 5 to 8 kg, and because each one is handmade, no two are identical.
Udupa's own account of making, on his website, describes several clays from different ponds mixed with filtered river sand, trodden for hours, rested and thrown on a wheel. The maker then beats and taps the wall from outside many times to even it and set the tone, so that a pot of about 16 kg ends at 7 to 8 kg before firing.
Size, clay, wall thickness and firing fix the pitch. After firing, a player can lower it only a little, with plasticine or clay inside, or with water. Because each pot holds one pitch, players keep a family of 25 to 40 pots across the concert range, Open Magazine reports.
How the Ghatam Is Played
The player sits with the ghatam in the lap, mouth towards the belly, and strikes it with the fingers, thumbs, palms and heels of both hands; nails and wrists add further strokes. Pressing the mouth against the belly to different degrees shapes the bass and gives fine differences of tone. The gumki is an airy, low bass made by striking the open mouth with a flat hand. Strokes at the neck, the centre and the bottom of the outer surface give a wide range of tone, and the instrument is capable of very fast rhythmic patterns.
A player can also turn the pot so its mouth faces the audience and strike the neck.
Advanced Techniques
Some players also strike the outer surface with the elbows. A mukthayam, or korvai, is a closing phrase played three times. In the tani avartanam a ghatam player may toss the pot into the air and catch it on the third repetition of that phrase, a move Giridhar Udupa describes as spontaneous. The display is old: in 1891 C. R. Day described players throwing the pot up and catching it while beating it, landing at the exact close of the tala.
Journey to Mastery
Follow this structured journey to master this discipline
Posture and basic strokes
Tonal Exploration
Solkattu and konnakkol
Accompaniment Skills
Tani Avartanam
Past Performances
Featured Artists
Renowned performers of this discipline