Ghatam
घटम
The clay pot drum of Carnatic music, played beside the mridangam
The ghatam is a South Indian pot drum, made of clay mixed with metal filings. It accompanies the mridangam as secondary percussion in Carnatic concerts.
History & Evolution
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.
- Before the late 19th century
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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. - Late 19th century
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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. - 1947
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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. - Up to 1992
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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.
Technical Aspects
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.
習得への道
この分野を習得するための体系的な道のりをたどりましょう
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Posture and basic strokes
By the end of this stage the student holds the pot steadily in the seated position, its mouth towards the belly, and plays the basic strokes of each hand with an even tone.
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Tonal Exploration
Students learn to control the bass shaped by the belly at the mouth of the pot, and the gumki, an airy bass struck with a flat hand on the open mouth. They set these against strokes at the neck, centre and bottom of the outer surface, so that low and high sounds alternate within one rhythmic pattern.
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Solkattu and konnakkol
Solkattu are the spoken drum syllables of Carnatic rhythm, and konnakkol is the art of reciting them; a konnakkol artist can join the drums in the tani avartanam. The practice is old: in 1891 C. R. Day recorded performers humming drum syllables such as ta, di, ti and ka as accompaniment, a practice called konnagolu.
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Accompaniment Skills
Students practise following a mridangam player's lead in a concert piece and answering phrases with patterns of their own, built from the syllables of the previous stage. As secondary percussion the ghatam takes up the mridangam's ideas, so the work centres on listening and choosing when to answer.
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Tani Avartanam
The tani avartanam is the percussion solo inside a main item, in its tala and tempo, with the mridangam starting and the other percussion following. Students prepare the ghatam's turns in this round. Display moves, such as turning the pot so its mouth faces the audience or tossing and catching it, come last and remain optional.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can a beginner, a child or a returning player start learning the ghatam, the Carnatic clay pot drum?
You can learn the ghatam with KalaSudha online and in workshops, and as a beginner you start at Foundation level. Foundation sets the pot in your lap and teaches its three primary tones, from the metallic finger strike to the bass at the mouth. We teach children as well as adults; ask us about a starting age and about a pot size for a younger learner.
After a long break, start again where you left off. Our courses are set out in levels, and your teacher first hears where you stand.
Have more questions? Contact our support team and we'll be happy to help!