The Mridangam

 By R.E. Narayanan

[About the Author:R. E. Narayanan, originally from Ramassery, Kerala, has been a well-known carnatic music rasika and organizer in Calcutta, India, for three decades until the late 1980s. He wrote this article over 25 years ago. He is now retired, and lives with his wife in Thiruppanithura, Kerala. Narayanan is a granduncle of E.G.Nadhan, who presents the article for us. - Editor]

Epics say that Lord Nataraja danced, to the accompaniment of the proficient Nandideva playing the mridangam.  Thus, mridangam is a divine instrument and is to be looked upon with all reverence and given its rightful place.  Mridangam is the principal rhythmic accompaniment in music concerts, harikatha kalakshepams, Bharatanatyam recitals, bhajans etc. In carnatic music concerts, mridangam is an essential accompaniment. When there is a combination with other percussion instruments like the kanjira, ghatam, morsing and dholak, there is a rhythmical harmony.  The potentialities of the mridangam are infinite.

Etymology

The word mridangam has its root in the word mrid-angam, meaning something made of clay.  It is also said that it is from mridu-angam, meaning a soft part.  Old literature says that this instrument was made of clay in early times.  The instrument khol used in Bengal is made of clay even today.  One unit of the tabla, in some cases is made of clay.  It can be assumed that with the passage of years, when population increased, followed by civilization, research and development, people began to manufacture mridangams out of logs from Jack, neem, palmyrah and even coconut trees.  Leading artists these days prefer seasoned logs of Jack tree for this purpose.

How is it made?

The required length of wood with sufficient girth is cut from the Jack tree. In the olden days, they were turned in a manually operated lathe.  The piece of wood is kept suitably in the lathe bed and as a wheel is rotated, a blade also moves along the surface of the wood on the bed, chopping it. The process goes on until the shape of the mridangam is obtained. Maintaining a thickness of about half an inch on the sides, the block is made hollow by careful chiseling.  The center portion is left thicker than the sides.  The inside portion is not smoothened, planed or polished, unlike the outer, as the roughness inside is said to create the required vibration.  The right side is smaller in diameter than the left. Once the body for the mridangam is ready, the work starts for capping the two open sides.  On the right side, a cap, with three circular pieces of seasoned leather - fixed one above the other, is placed.  The bottom one is not visible, as it is under the piece called chaappu, and above this is meetu. Meetu is made of cow skin and chaappu, of goatskin. The left side, called thoppi, is also capped by seasoned leather, but here only two circular pieces are used. The bottom one is of goatskin and the top, of buffalo skin. These are exposed to the sun for some time before being fitted on to the drum. When the caps for the two sides are ready holes are meticulously drilled on them all round the edges at fixed intervals.  Experimental and temporary pieces of leather straps are drawn through them, connecting both the caps on the sides, and the perfection of the caps ascertained. Later, continuous long leather straps made of horse skin, about half-inch wide are passed through the holes and both sides tightly connected with these straps.  Expertly beating and tapping ensures the correctness and mellowness of the sound. The tightness is to be maintained, as by striking on the leather caps on the two sides. Vibrant sound is produced, which will not be the case if the straps were not tight.  The number of holes through which the strap is drawn used to be eight in the olden days, which became 16, and these have yielded place to 32.

Tuning

Being an accompaniment, the mridangam is to be tuned to the pitch of the main artist.  To facilitate this, a paste is progressively applied to the chaappu on the right side, in very small quantities and rubbed and pressed with a polished stone, in a circular manner.  This paste is made out of a powder, obtained by grinding a particular type of stone found in the hills (having some iron content), mixed with cooked rice. The paste is thicker at the center than the rest of the circle. The sound obtained by beating and tapping on the meettu and chaappu at the appropriate places, is checked off-and-on during the application, and according to requirements, the paste is added or scraped off.  The paste is allowed to dry.  Then the pitch is adjusted by slightly hitting the place where the holes are, with a small cylindrical wooden piece and hitting it with a handy stone.  If the pitch is to be reduced, the wooden piece is placed below the holes and hit.  The mridangam is tuned by hitting, beating and tapping all round the right side according to requirements. Similarly, the left side thoppi is also tuned to the right side. For this, rava (cream of wheat) paste is put at the center to the required extent and by beating the left and the right sides, the tuning checked. The rava paste is removed soon after the use of the instrument, whereas the black paste on the right side remains until it falls off, bit by bit due to the beating it is subjected to. Temporary filling up of the portion that has fallen off is also resorted to and when the required sound is not obtained, the entire thing is changed.

The mridangams used in concerts rendered by men and women artists slightly differ in characteristics. Men sing in a lower pitch than women do.  So, for the former, the mridangam is about 24" long and for the latter, about 22". The black paste on the chaappu is slightly thicker and larger in the former compared to the latter. This is how this marvelous percussion instrument takes shape.

Learning to play

The mridangam is played with the fingers and the entire palm on the right side depending on the sound and rhythm to be produced. For the left, the fingers, the palm and the wrist are used.  The sound produced on the left side thoppi is of a different type and nature altogether. Playing the mridangam requires intensive training, absolute dedication and application to the art, and extremely hard work. It also requires that determination to learn more and more, to develop, and to have an innovative spirit.  One has to select an ideal teacher.  In the same way as vocal music is based on the seven svaras, the mridangam is based on notes too - the difference being, while the former are uttered by mouth, the latter are struck by taps and beats.  Mridangam notes are also represented by letters and the teachers utter them as they are played on the instrument with proper fingerings etc.  The pupil is asked to memorize and repeat what the mridangam teacher demonstrates by mouth. In vocal music, the teacher starts with the seven svaras, the Sarali, Janta, Thattu, Alankarams, Geetams and then the Varnas, by which time, the student acquires the required grip on the svaras and produces the right note.  Then follow the songs, after completing a few of which, the teacher tests the imaginative skill and potentialities of the student to render a raga and svaraprastara.  The teacher insists on the student listening to concerts by eminent artists, so that the student can pick up the finer points and adopt them.  The teacher ensures severe practice, so that the student can become a perfectly finished product, competent to give a full-dress music recital. In the same way, the mridangam teacher starts with the rudiments and after the fingerings are all right and well set and the required sounds start coming out, gives further lessons step by step, with an increasing number of beats and taps, greater speed, and with varying combinations. Talam-wise, the student acquires a clear insight and develops originality.  The student then finds himself or herself in a position to create own ideas, methods, patterns, calculations and the ways of conclusion - bearing in mind the most important thing, and that is, never to depart from the foundation laid by the teacher.

It is therefore seen that both vocal music and the mridangam are inseparably linked.

Role of Tala

In vocal music, excepting the elaboration of the raga, the rest is based on tala. Tala can easily be called a scale.  In the same way as everything in this wide world is guided by a certain scale, be it space, sea, flights, talking, running, walking or swimming, in our music also, tala serves as an indispensable scale. Different talas (a book can be written on this) provide different shapes, forms and effects for our music. Vocal music and mridangam merge and provide the required harmonious effect. Talas are numerous and have their respective forms.  They comprise the beat and the counting (called laghu), then the beat and waving (called dhrutam) and in some, the beat alone following the laghu (called the anudhrutam).  Each tala has an aksharakala, depending on the laghu, dhrutam and anudhrutam, if any, and also the regular steps in which the tala is set - called the nadai, such as tisra (3), chaturasra (4), ghanta (5), misra (7) and sankeerna (9).  Observing these minutely, the vocalist and the mridangist perform, the former limiting himself to vocal production, while the latter with the untold permutations and combinations made possible by the length and duration of the tala and its aksharakala, is enabled
to display his percussion skill. For an expert mridangist there is no limit, the same way as there is no limit for the ragas that can derive from the 72 melakarta ragas.

The Role of the Mridangist

The success or failure of a music concert depends largely on the mridangam player.  The value of his role can be estimated, if one could imagine a concert by just a vocalist and a violinist, but without a mridangist at all, in which case one would find a big void.  Likewise, the mridangist cannot have a performance alone.  So the mridangam and music are inseparable.  The work for the mridangist starts when the musician renders a song.  The former at once notes the tala, the commencing point of the song in the tala, the nadai and the tempo of the kalapramana. The whole structure immediately appears before him and his brain dictates to him how to play, with measured and pleasing sound and attractive finishes at the right places.  A competent mridangam player creates more and more of enthusiasm in the musician he accompanies, when the latter finds that the mridangist has the grip on the tala, the tempo etc. and follows the lead closely, producing the correct sounds with remarkably telling effect, to the appreciation of the audience.  Even when the musician is not in his mood, the mridangist can transform the whole atmosphere and be the pacesetter for the musician to come out of his shell.

A mridangam player can prove to be a great success if he is proficient in music also, because there is the added advantage of knowing the songs and the possibilities therein.  One need necessarily not learn music but can really pick it up by experience as a mridangist.  If music is in the blood, the rest would be automatic by the ears becoming full and music reverberating therein.  Whether a mridangam player knows music also, can easily be known by the sound produced on the instrument - on the meettu, chaappu and the thoppi. It can be known by the pleasing and soothing effect given at the right place and moment; by the mode of the play on the primary tempo and the swifter tempo, both in respect of the structure of the song and rendering of the svaras.  Mere movement of the fingers, strikes and sounds will not do, but what is produced must be harmonious, appropriate and pleasing.  The sound produced differs from player to player, in the same way as human voice differs from person to person, which is due to physiological reasons.

Solo by the Mridangist

In music concerts, the violinist and the percussion instrumentalists get opportunities to display their respective mastery of the art by dexterous demonstration individually.  When a raga is under elaboration by the vocalist, the violinist just follows by bowing, touching and reproducing the tunes at the appropriate places, serving as the needed assistant. When the elaboration is over, the violinist gets a chance to play solo, when he also gives an equally spacious and evocative exposition of the raga. After the concert has progressed for about two hours, the vocalist plans for an apt stage at which to ask the percussion instrumentalists to have a solo bout.  The vocalist sings a piece in a tala that would give plenty of scope for the mridangist and the others - if there were any, to have a good go.  This will also serve as a period of rest for the vocalist.  The mridangist takes full charge and leads the others, if any, say on the ghatam, kanjira and morsing - at times all the three, at times one of the three or two. From instantaneous instinct, the mridangist starts and plays in an imposing manner covering a few complete rounds of the tala, with varying sounds, phrases and impressive finishes.  The others follow suit.  They add further color to the solo by changing the nadai. That is, if they commence in steps of four, (generally the nadai in which the piece was sung is maintained) they change it to three, five, seven and nine or any one or two of these and later revert to the nadai they started with.  They then go on to reduce the length of the rounds. First they may have about eight rounds, which is gradually brought down to two, one, half, quarter and even one-eighth of the length of the tala. From there they pick up, all of them together, racing to the point where they should start the finishing chain of the display planned, strictly adhering to the rules and technicalities governing these, so that the concluding point precisely coincides with the commencing point of the piece sung by the vocalist. In the olden days concerts used to be of at least four hours duration. Those arranged for marriages, used to be of five and six hours' duration, going on till late at night.  The percussionists used to play twice, once after about two hours from the commencement and again after the pallavi, which was considered to be the most outstanding feature in a concert and very eagerly waited.  The solo bout by the percussionists itself used to be referred to as tala vadya cutcheri.  The impressive manner in which the mridangist commences the solo perfectly in tune with the resounding sruti, the measured beats, the variation in sounds and the thrilling finishes at
the end of the turns, the sudden and apt changes in the nadai, the speed of the finishing strokes; the way they start reducing the length and pick up speed to close the display - all elicit spontaneous compliments at each finish from the spell-bound audience, and thunderous applause when the team finishes the solo.

Code of Ethics

While discussing these, it has to be mentioned that mridangists should also follow certain code of ethics.  They should give the respect due to the presiding artist.  They should ensure that they strictly adhere to the tempo of the music rendered and not disturb it.  Being rhythm accompanists, mridangists should give out their best, bringing out the nuances and aesthetics of the structure of the songs rendered.  They should never attempt to perplex the performer by untimely and irrelevant phrases and arrest the performer's flight of imagination.  On the other hand, they should prove to be pillars of strength and support to the main artist.  The audience, consisting of people knowing the ins and outs of the mridangam, who are so very observant, should leave the hall thoroughly pleased and with words of praise.

Maintenance

 The mridangam is to be kept spick and span with careful maintenance. Immediately after each performance, the rava paste applied on the thoppi is to be removed of all remnants thereof.  The condition of the black paste is to be checked  often and if it requires attention by some addition or complete replacement, this is to be done in time.  The straps have always to be tight enough.  The instrument is to be checked daily when not in use, as the leather portion thereof would be subject to atmospheric influence.  The leather portion of the instrument is to be replaced when it becomes unserviceable.

The Mridangam Today

There have been eminent mridangam players in the past, whose names should be written in letters of gold in history.  Drawing inspiration from those outstanding artists, today we have in our midst, quite a few mridangam vidwans, each eminent in his own way. About seventy years ago, the number of mridangists could be counted on fingers, but thanks to the increased population and the modern facilities such as the various music schools and colleges, associations, radio and TV, the number of people who have taken to music has gone up by leaps and bounds.

Music and the instruments have been in existence since the creation of universe and have been handed down to posterity ever since.  So it is a divine matter which cannot perish.  To be a good musician, to be a good mridangam player and to be a discerning listener and critic, one has to have the Almighty's blessings and the blessings of the elders. May God bless all that are dedicated to music and other fine arts