Mridangam: India musical instrument

The mridangam is a percussion musical instrument that originated from ancient India. The musical instrument is the main rhythmic accompaniment instrument in a Carnatic music and Newa music group. Some other spellings for the name of the instrument are "mrudangam", "mrdangam", "mritangam" and "miruthangam in Tamil".

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The musical instrument is played in the Carnatic concerts in some countries outside India; such as Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. During a percussion cooperative, the musical instrument is usually accompanied by the ghatam, the kanjira and the morsing.

The name of the instrument is Sandhi or union of the two Sankrit words ‘mrda’ meaning clay and ‘anga’ meaning body, as early versions of the musical instrument were manufactured of hardened clay.

In the ancient Hindu sculpture, painting and mythology, the mridangam is normally portrayed as the musical instrument of choice for a number of deities comprising the Ganesha and the Nandi, who is the vehicle and cohort of Shiva. The Nandi is said to have played the musical instrument during the Shiva’s primeval tandava dance, producing a heavenly rhythm to resound across the heavens. Thus the musical instrument is known as a divine musical instrument.

Over the years, the musical instrument progressed to be of various kinds of wood because of its increased stability, and today, the body of the instrument is carved from the wood of jackfruit tree. It is assumed that the tabla was first fashioned by splitting a mridangam in half. With the development of the mridangam came the fabrication of the tala system. The tala systems in the Carnatic music may be most multifaceted percussive rhythm system of any formula of classical music.

The musical instrument has a large function in the Newa music. One of the earliest Nepal Bhasa documents on music is a dissertation on this musical instrument known as mridanga anukaranam.

In Tamil culture, the musical instrument is called tannimai. The earliest mention of the musical instrument in Tamil literature is seen probably in the Sangam literature, where the musical instrument is called ‘tannumai’. In later works such as silappadikaram also we see detailed reference to the instrument as in the Natyasastra. The musical instrument together with the முரசு, muracu, துடி, tuṭi and பறை, parai because it was said that the holy sound from the instrument will deflect the arrows of enemy and protect the king. During the post-Sangam era, as cited in the epic Cilappatikaram, it molded a part of the அந்தரக்கொட்டு, antarakoṭṭu, a musical group at the origination of dramatic performances that would later advance in Bharathanatyam. The player of this musical instrument detained the title தண்ணுமை அருந்தொழில் முதல்வன், tannumai aruntozhil mutalvan.

The musical instrument is a double-sided drum whose body is often carved with the use of a hollowed piece of jackfruit wood that is about an inch thick. The two mouths of the drum are covered with the use of a goatskin and laced to each other with the use of leather belts around the circumference of the musical drum. These belts are put into a state of high tension to spread out the circular membranes are not similar in width to permit for the creation of both bass and treble sound from the same musical drum.

The bass aperture is called ‘thoppi or eda bhaaga’ and the smaller aperture is called the ‘valanthalai or bala bhaaga’. When struck, the smaller membrane manufactures higher pitched sounds with a metallic tone quality. The wider aperture manufactures lower pitched sounds. The skin of goat that is covering the smaller aperture is smoothed in the centre with the black disk produced of rice flour, ferric oxide powder and starch. This black tuning paste is known as ‘satham’ or ‘karami’, and it gives the musical instrument its unique metallic tone quality.

Immediately before the use of the musical instrument in a performance, the leather that is covering the wider aperture is made moist and a spot of rice paste and water is applied to the center that lowers the pitch of the left membrane and supplies it a very powerful resonating bass. The player of the musical instrument tunes the drum by varying the tension in the leather belt spanning the hull of the musical instrument. This is realized by placing the musical instrument upright with its larger side of the drum facing down and then striking the tension-bearing belts that is positioned along the circumference of the right membrane with the use of a heavy object. Sometimes, a wooden peg is placed between the heavy object and the musical instrument during the tuning pattern to guarantee that the force is exerted at specifically on point where it is required. The pitch of the instrument can be lowered by striking the periphery from the opposite side, while the pitch can be raised by striking the periphery of the right membrane in the direction toward the hull. The pitch must be constant and stable at all points along the circumference of the valanthalai for the instrument to resonate perfectly. The pitch of the instrument can be stabilized with the help of a pitch pipe or a tambora. The larger membrane can as well be tuned in an analogous manner, but it is not done as often.

The musical instrument can be played resting it parallel to the floor. Some right-handed players of the musical instrument play the smaller membrane with his or her right hand plays the larger membrane with his or her left hand.

There is also a parallelounds of the musical instrument. Students of this art are expected to learn and rehearse both the fingering stokes imparted as the training becomes more progressive that are commonly used as beautiful embellishment while playing the musical instrument. These notes are ‘im’ and ‘chaapyu’. The combination of these fingers stokes manufactures complex mathematical styles.

In the modern days, the mridangam is most commonly used in the Carnatic music performances. These performances take place all through the southern India and are now well-known all through the world. As the standard rhythmic accompaniment, the musical instrument has a place of extreme importance, making sure that all of the other players of the instrument are keeping their timing in check while providing upkeep to the main player of the instrument. One of the highlights of a contemporary Carnatic music concert is the percussion solo, where the player of the musical instrument and other players of percussion instrument like  kanjira, morsing and the ghatam vidwans exchange different complex rhythmic styles, climaxing in a grand finale where the main players of the musical instrument resumes where he or she left off.

The musical instrument is used as an accompaniment musical instrument in Yakshagana Himmela where it is known as maddale. Meanwhile, the musical instrument used in Yakshagana is markedly dissimilar in structure and acoustic from the ones that were used in the Carnatic music.

Some popular players of the musical instrument in modern times are Dr. T.K. Murthy, Umayalapuram K. Sivaraman, Vellore Ramabhadran, Trichy Sankaran, B. Harikumar, Karaikudi Mani, Madurai.T.Srinivasan (Seenakutti), Yella Venkateswara Rao, Srimushnam Raja Rao, Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam, Mahadevu Lakshmi Narayana Raju and Cheluvaraj Trichur C. Narendran who have been playing and progressing the styles since years.