Page:The Music of India.djvu/150

 The Karadsamila is another form of this drum used in Lingayat temples. It is slightly larger and the shell is conical, with the apex flattened. The head of this drum is braced by leather thongs round the shell. The skin is often put on when wet and then shrunk into its place.

The Dhol is the wedding drum of India. It is cylindrical in shape and about twenty inches long and twelve inches in diameter. It is made of wood bored out of the solid. The heads are made of skin and are stretched by hoops fastened to the shell and strained by interlaced thongs of leather bound round the shell. A band of leather passes round the shell in the middle and serves to tighten up the instrument to the desired pitch. A mixture of boiled rice and wood ash is often applied to the ends of the dhol to give more resonance. This drum is played either by hand or with sticks. Sometimes both are used. If by hand, it is struck by the palm. The sound is a hollow bang with very little music in it, and there is no possibility of drumming finesse, as there is with the mridanga. The dhol is often used in temples at ceremonies and festivals.

The Dholki, Dholak and Dak are smaller and larger kinds of dhol respectively. The former is used by the Dekkan women.

The Damaru, Nidukku, Udukku or Budhudaka is a peculiar drum, shaped like an hour-glass. A small stick or a piece of lead or a pea is attached to a string, which is wound round the middle. It is held in the right hand, so that the squeeze of the fingers tightens the braces and sharpens the tone a little within a sixth. The stick or piece of lead or pea strikes on the drum heads alternately, as the holder turns the drum this way and that. This drum is said to have been used by Siva. To-day, however, it is the possession of beggars and snakecharmers and their ilk.

The Edaka or Dudi is a metal drum of this same shape and size used in Coorg. One end of it is beaten by a drum-stick and one by hand. In Malabar a drum of this sort is made from a gourd. When four or five of them are beaten together at a religious service the noise is prodigious. They have practically no musical value.