Page:The Music of India.djvu/149

 sound Panchama. It must be carefully washed off every time after it is used. This head is played with the left hand.

The Tabla is found in the north and centre of India, where it takes the place of the mridanga. Instead of being one drum with two heads, it is two drums, the two heads being one on each of the two. They are each slightly smaller in size than the mridanga, and one of them looks like a mridanga cut in half. The shape of the tabla has been described as 'a great tea-cup and coffee-cup respectively'. One of the drums is sometimes made of copper and the other of wood, or both may be of wood. Both of them have tuning blocks and braces like the mridanga, or they may have iron screws which work up iron threads. Both heads of the tabla have upon them a permanent mixture. On the left hand drum it is worked on slightly to one side and for about two inches in diameter. On the other head it is the same as upon the right head of the mridanga. The smaller tabla is sometimes called Bahyay though this is really a small wooden kettle drum of similar shape. Both the mridanga and tabla are essentially concert drums and lend themselves to all kinds of drumming finesse. The mridanga is used mostly in the south of India, though it is also found in the north. The tabla is rarely found further south than Bangalore.

The Pakhawaj is a drum slightly larger than the mridanga but similar in shape, which is used in the north of India.

The Nagara, or Bherl or Nakkara, is a large kettle drum, used very largely for war-like and religious ceremonies. It is called Dundubhi in the ancient literature. The shell is made of copper, brass or sheet-iron rivetted together. The heads are made of skin and are stretched upon hoops of metal. The head may be anything from two to three feet in diameter. It is beaten with two curved sticks.

The Mahanagara or Nahabet is a very large drum of this sort used in wandering theatrical troupes, or by the great Muhammadan robles in their ceremonies. It is sometimes five feet in diameter.