Mridangam
मृदंगम
The double-headed drum that carries the rhythm of Carnatic music
The mridangam is the double-headed barrel drum that leads the percussion in Carnatic music, with a treble head for the right hand and a bass head for the left.
History & Evolution
Sanskrit literature knows the drum as the mridanga. The word appears in the Mahabharata, and the Natyashastra, the ancient treatise on drama and music, counts it among the principal drums. Writers explain the name in different ways. The Natyashastra ties it to mrit, earth or clay, the material of early drums. Monier-Williams derives it, probably, from mridam and ga, "going about while being beaten", and Apte from the root mrid, "to be beaten". Later drums were made of wood. The physicist C. V. Raman noted that ancient Sanskrit works refer to the mridanga and that the Ajanta cave paintings picture it.
Hindu legend says Nandi played the drum for the tandava, the dance of Shiva, and calls it deva vadyam, the divine instrument; Ganesha is often shown with it. Accounts of its northern relatives differ. Jameela Siddiqi, writing for the Darbar trust, presents the mridangam as the prototype of the pakhawaj, and Raman called the tabla a modern variant of the mridanga.
- Ancient Period
-
The Natyashastra
The Natyashastra lists the mridanga among its principal drums, the pushkara, and describes shapes likened to the myrobalan fruit, a barley grain and a cow's tail. Raman noted that the drum also appears in the Ajanta cave paintings. - Early to mid 20th century
-
Three 20th-century masters
Palghat Mani Iyer (1912-1981) becomes the first mridangist to receive the Music Academy's Sangita Kalanidhi. His contemporaries include Palani Subramania Pillai (1908-1962; some sources give 1909) and C. S. Murugabhoopathy (1914-1998). - 1960s to the present
-
Later Generations
After Mani Iyer's award in the 1960s, the Music Academy gives its Sangita Kalanidhi to more mridangists: T. K. Murthy in 1994, Mani Iyer's disciples Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman in 2001 and Palghat R. Raghu in 2007, and T. V. Gopalakrishnan in 2014.
Technical Aspects
Karanai (Black Spot)
The karanai is the permanent black patch on the right-hand treble head. That head is built from three layers of skin. The maker cuts away all but one layer over the centre, leaving rings at the margin, then builds the patch on the single skin coat by coat, rubbing each down with a stone. It is thickest at the centre. Raman recorded in 1934 that the paste was said to contain iron oxide, charcoal, starch and gum; Jameela Siddiqi of the Darbar trust gives boiled rice, manganese filings and water.
Raman's experiments, begun in 1919, showed that the loaded head damps its higher overtones and groups its lowest nine modes into five tones in harmonic sequence, so the drum sounds a definite pitch. A broad marginal ring gives a short, muffled tone and a narrow ring a longer, brighter one. To tune the drum to the tonic, the player strikes the hoop or strap, sometimes through a wooden peg.
Left Head Paste (Thoppi)
The larger left-hand bass head carries no permanent patch. Before each performance the mridangist presses a fresh, moistened lump of dough onto its centre, which lowers the pitch and deepens the bass. Raman, writing in 1934, described the dough as kneaded wheat flour.
Solkattu and Konnakol
Solkattu are the spoken drum syllables of Carnatic rhythm, sol meaning syllable and kattu a group in the percussionist Trichy Sankaran's gloss, and konnakkol is the art of reciting them.
One research dataset, published by the Music Technology Group at Universitat Pompeu Fabra from recordings of a professional Carnatic percussionist, sorts mridangam strokes into ten classes: bheem, cha, dheem, dhin, num, ta, tha, tham, thi and thom.
De weg naar meesterschap
Volg dit gestructureerde traject om deze kunstvorm onder de knie te krijgen
-
Seating and first strokes
The player sits cross-legged with one leg slightly extended and rests the drum on the padded ankle. C. V. Raman observed in 1934 that mridangam playing uses the flat of the hand more than tabla playing, which relies mostly on the fingertips.
-
Speaking the Rhythm
This stage covers solkattu, the spoken drum syllables of Carnatic rhythm, and konnakkol, the art of reciting them. Konnakkol draws on the syllable patterns of the old masters, and a konnakkol artist can take part in the tani avartanam beside the other percussionists.
-
Learning the Talas
A tala is the repeating rhythmic cycle that frames a composition, built from parts called angams: the laghu, a clap followed by finger counts, the dhrutam of two beats and the anudhrutam of one. Adi tala is a cycle of eight beats, 4 + 2 + 2. Chaturashra jaati Rupaka tala has six. Misra chapu is a two-part tala of 3 + 4.
-
Accompanying a Soloist
NCERT's textbook account of Palghat Mani Iyer credits him with actively supporting the phrases of the music rather than only keeping the rhythm. In concert the mridangam leads the other percussion, and the accompanist plays within the tala and tempo of each item, following the lead performer through it.
-
Solo Performance
The tani avartanam is the percussion solo, played within a main item in the same tala and tempo. When the mridangam and ghatam play together, the mridangam always starts and the ghatam follows its theme. Their korapu exchange shortens from a full cycle to a single beat, and the tani ends with a final korvai played three times.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can a beginner, a child or a player returning after a long break start learning the mridangam?
Start the mridangam with KalaSudha, online or in a workshop: beginners begin at Foundation level. Foundation sets your hands on the two heads and teaches the first strokes, each syllable spoken aloud as you play it. We teach children as well as adults, so ask us about a starting age and about a drum size for a younger learner.
If you stopped for a long break, our courses run in levels and you start again where you left off. Your teacher first reviews where you stand.
Have more questions? Contact our support team and we'll be happy to help!