Specific Discipline

Kanjira

कंजीरा

"The small frame drum of Carnatic percussion, played beside the mridangam"

Frame Drum Pitch-Bending Drum

The kanjira is a small South Indian frame drum of the tambourine family, played with one hand as secondary percussion to the mridangam in Carnatic classical music.

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Quick Facts

Size
About 6.5 to 9 inches across
Head
Goat skin or synthetic (once monitor lizard)
Technique
Fingertip pressure bends the pitch
Notable Players
Maanpoondiya Pillai, Pudukkottai Dakshinamurthy Pillai, G. Harishankar

Overview

The kanjira (also spelled khanjira or ganjira) is a small, single-headed frame drum of the tambourine family, played in Carnatic (South Indian classical) music as secondary percussion to the mridangam. Its wooden frame, about seven inches across, carries a skin head glued over one side and metal jingles, often coins, fitted into a slot in the rim. The concert kanjira took shape in the late nineteenth century at Pudukkottai, in present-day Tamil Nadu, where Maanpoondiya Pillai founded the Pudukkottai school of percussion, according to his biographer Lalitha Ram.

The player holds the drum in one hand, strikes the head with the other and can bend its pitch by pressing near the edge. Heads were once monitor lizard skin. The Indian government has since outlawed the use of the animal, so players use goat skin or synthetic heads. The drum has no tuning mechanism; players sprinkle water inside to slacken the head and deepen its bass.

In Carnatic terms it is an upa-pakkavadyam, a secondary accompanist, and may share that place with the ghatam or the morsing. Each percussionist takes a turn in the tani avartanam, the percussion solo section of a concert. Western percussionists such as John Bergamo have also taken the drum up.

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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 concert kanjira traces to Maanpoondiya Pillai (also spelled Manpoondia) of Pudukkottai, in present-day Tamil Nadu, who lived from 1859 to 1922 according to his biographer Lalitha Ram, as reported in The Hindu. Lalitha Ram records that he lit lanterns at the Pudukkottai palace and trained with a local thavil player (the thavil is a large South Indian barrel drum) before shaping the instrument with a monitor lizard skin head and old coins as jingles. He won the approval of the Thanjavur mridangam master Narayanaswamy Appa and founded the Pudukkottai school of percussion.

His student Pudukkottai Dakshinamurthy Pillai (1875 to 1936) carried the school forward, and the biographer reports that both men at times took the mridangam player's place on the concert platform. In the late twentieth century G. Harishankar (1958 to 2002), a staff artist of All India Radio, Chennai, received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 2001. The Akademi cited his intricate technique in the Pudukkottai tradition and his part in popularising the kanjira as a concert instrument.

Late 19th Century

The concert kanjira takes shape

Small frame drums with jingles accompany folk and devotional (bhajan) singing, though no dated source fixes the age of that tradition. At Pudukkottai, Maanpoondiya Pillai adapts one for the concert platform, according to his biographer Lalitha Ram.

20th Century

The Pudukkottai lineage

Palani Subramania Pillai (1908 to 1962; some sources give 1909) is the son of Palani Muthaiah Pillai, one of Maanpoondiya Pillai's students. He becomes best known as a mridangam player, and he also gives kanjira performances.

Late 20th Century

G. Harishankar

G. Harishankar trains with his father T.T. Govinda Rao, with Ramanathapuram C.S. Murugabhoopathy and with Palghat Mani Iyer. The Sangeet Natak Akademi gives him its award for 2001 and credits him with popularising the kanjira as a concert instrument.

21st Century

Synthetic heads and new makers

Players replace monitor lizard skin with goat skin or synthetic heads. In 2014 N. Ganesh Kumar told The Hindu of maple and Mylar kanjiras he co-designed with the US maker Cooperman.

Playing Techniques

How the Kanjira Is Played

In the usual position the left hand holds the frame and the right palm and fingers strike the head. Left fingertips pressing near the rim raise and bend the pitch. The drum has no tuning mechanism. Dry, it sounds very high, so players sprinkle water inside to slacken the head for a deeper bass. Too much water deadens the tone until it dries, so players keep several drums at different degrees of wetness.

The Head: Lizard, Goat and Synthetic

Heads today are goat skin or synthetic film such as Mylar. The traditional head was monitor lizard skin. The Hudson Music kanjira method notes that the Indian government has outlawed the use of these animals for drums. Players quoted in The Hindu rate synthetic heads well but say they do not match old lizard skins, which some players keep and reuse.

Jingles and the Frame Drum Family

Metal jingles, often coins, sit in a slot in the frame. Sources disagree on the number: some describe a single pair, others three or four small discs. One method book names small Japanese coins with a central hole as a common choice. Like the Western tambourine, the kanjira is a frame drum with jingles, though it carries far fewer.

Journey to Mastery

Follow this structured journey to master this discipline

1

Holding and basic strokes

Begin with the standard grip described under How the Kanjira Is Played, and have a teacher check it before you move on. Then build the basic sound. One practitioner method works from two main tones, an open bass and a treble played with a split-hand technique, and combines them with closed strokes. Practise each stroke on its own before joining them in short patterns.
20%
2

Pitch Bending

Add pitch bending once the basic strokes are secure; one method book advises against working on it in the early stages. Press the head near its rim with the fingertips of the holding hand to raise the pitch, then control how far and how fast the bend moves. A steep inner bearing edge on the frame deepens the bend.
40%
3

Tala and Solkattu

Learn solkattu (also spelled sollukattu), the spoken rhythm syllables that stand for drum strokes. Kanjira players learn the mridangam's full syllable set and realise it on the kanjira's fewer tones. Practise the phrases within tala, the cyclic metre of a piece, for speed and clarity. Many players also study the mridangam, as B.S. Purushotham did before moving to the kanjira.
60%
4

Accompanying the Mridangam

Practise accompanying a singer or instrumentalist with a mridangam player beside you. Concert line-ups vary: some pair the kanjira with the mridangam alone, others add the ghatam or morsing, so rehearse in both. Many kanjira players train on the mridangam first or as well, as B. S. Purushotham and G. Harishankar did.
80%
5

Tani Avartanam

Prepare for the tani avartanam (also spelled thani avarthanam), the percussion solo after the main composition. The mridangam and the secondary percussionists take turns in the chosen tala, then play together in the koraippu before the main artist resumes. Learn the korvai, a composed passage that lands on a chosen point in the tala, to close your turns.
100%

Past Performances

Featured Artists

Renowned performers of this discipline

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