Mridangam is an ancient percussion instrument originating in India. It is said to be a royal instrument especially in Tamil Nadu. It is used even today in music concerts mainly in Carnatic music.
It has a unique tone due to the black patch in the middle. This patch is made out of mud particles and includes metals such as iron, manganese etc. These mud particles are from the kittam stone. It is said that this powder is mixed in cooked rice and applied as concentric layers to get this sound.
Though earlier it was made from different varieties of wood, now, mainly it is made from the jackfruit tree.
In ancient times, it was used as an accompaniment to the lead artiste, usually the vocalist. However, now even solo performances are found.
This instrument is a double sided drum. The body is a hollow piece made from jackfruit wood which is around an inch in thickness. Both the sides are covered with a cow,goat or buffalo skin and held to the drum with leather straps across the drum. They are stretched out to high tension so that the sound resonates when struck on the sides. The sides are not of the same diameter. This helps in producing the varying sounds from the same drum. The smaller side called the valanthalai creates higher pitched sounds and the bigger side called the thoppi gives lower pitched sounds. The black patch in the middle gives a distinct metallic timbre.
Prior to the performance, the leather covering the mridangam is made moist using rava (semolina) and water though now rubber gum is also used. Tuning of this instrument is done by placing the bigger side down and using a stone to strike at the periphery of the smaller side.
Tani avartanam meaning solo recurring rhythmic cycle is a special piece played by the percussionist just after completion of the middle segment called Kalpanaswara (improvisation) by the vocalist and violinist. It is almost like a competition between the mridangam, ghatam (pot like instrument) and the kanjira (single handed drum). The grand finale is when all the three come together, play to reach a crescendo and the main performer resumes where they stopped.
In the past few decades, mridangamelas have been organised wherein several mridangam artistes come together and perform.
This is one of the instruments worth hearing especially as an accompaniment to Carnatic music.
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