The Drumming Tradition of South India

With Special Reference to the Percussion Art- forms of Kerala

The southern part of India has a rich tradition of percussion instruments as well as
instrumental music. Among the percussion instruments, mridangam, ganchira and ghatam share
a common platform in various states of South India, for they are popularly used for
accompaniment in South Indian Classical music, which is known as Karnatic Music. Thavil is
another instrument that accompanies Nagaswara, a wind instrument that performs in all South
Indian states as a part of temple festivals and marriage ceremonies. All the main South Indian
states have a wonderful tradition of folk art-forms also. Various types of percussion instruments
are using in many of these art-forms.

Parai, an ancient drum, which was depicted in Tolkapiam and other Sangham works of
ancient Tamil, had many forms like patala parai, akuli parai, kini Parai, neytal parai etc. and
they were practiced by Panar community in many art-forms of that period. The
instruments, muzhavu and thannumai are other two major examples. We can see a lot of
percussion instruments like maddalam, chenda, mizhavu, thappu, udukku, thudi, pampai and
veeranam in different phases of South Indian history. Veeranam, a kind of a war drum, is still
present in veeranatya of Andhra Pradesh. Another instrument thaasa, which has a strong
connection with North India, is also performed in veeranatya. Runja is a rare instrument of
Thelangana. It's interesting to see that burraveena of Thelangana, a string instrument by nature,
is playing like a percussion instrument for the performances. On the contrary, idaykka of Kerala,
which is basically a percussion instrument, can produce musical notes like a string instrument.
Different types of parai are popular in the folk performances of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Chenda, the major percussion instrument, which is present in many art forms Kerala, gets
prominence in yakshagana, a dance drama performed in Karnataka also. Pampai melam is a
special form of percussion, prevalent in Tamil Nadu as well as Kerala.

These are some examples for the role of percussion instruments in the various
performance traditions of South India. As far as the eminence of percussion is concerned, Kerala
has a special place among the South Indian regions, because this land boasts a number of lofty
orchestral forms. Chendamelams in different talas (rhythms) such as panchari, champata,
champa, atantha, anchatantha and dhruvam are the major orchestral forms which are performed
during temple festivals. Chendamelam is a collective performance by more than a hundred artists
on various musical instruments, prominently on chenda, a percussion instrument with a
tumultuous sound. Valanthala, kurunkuzhal, kombu and ilathalam are the other instruments
played in these melams. Though the musical ensemble is the same, the rhythms and the way of
succession of tempos are different for every melam. Pancharimelam is the most popular one
among these orchestral forms, which has five tempos. Panchari tala is the basic rhythm
performed in it by progressively accelerating from the first tempo of 96 matras (quantity of
beats) to the fifth tempo of 6 matras. The second, third and fourth tempos consist of 48, 24 and
12 matras respectively. Pancharimelam represents the stylization that could have happened to a
simple rhythm, which is in a form of five beats followed by one interval. The other melams like
champata, champa, atantha and anchatantha are performed in four tempos but the rare melam
dhruvam has only three tempos. There is a popular melam known as pandimelam but it is very
different from the other melams for its pattern of rhythm and succession of tempos.
 Panchavadyam is another kind of musical orchestra performed in Kerala. The main
instrument played in panchavadyam is thimila. Maddalam, kombu, kurunkuzhal, ilathalam and
sankhu are the other instruments performed in this art-form. The rhythm succession of
panchavadyam is different from chendamelams. It starts in a very slow tempo that consists of
896 matras and progressively changes to different phases and ends in a rapid tempo of 3 1/2
matras.
In all of these percussive art forms, rhythm plays a significant role by changing its form
in each tempo and this complex structure of rhythmic succession bestows a splendid colour to
the whole performance. Champata a simple rhythm consists of eight matras, which is similar to
aadi tala of Karnatic music, takes a form of 64 beats in first tempo of champata melam. The
second tempo is in 32 matras and third tempo performs in 16 matras. The original form of
rhythm appears in the last tempo only. That means, the way of counting the beats in each tempo
is different, because of the dependence on percussion instruments and cymbals for this purpose
instead of the actions by hands (hastakriyas), which is popular in classical vocal music. Similarly
champa tala of 10 matras, not only varies in the matras of every tempo, but keeps a difference in
rhythm structure also. Though atantha tala and dhruva tala share the same number of 14 matras,
the structures of these melams are different. Anchatantha tala of 16 matras resembles champata
tala in the number of matras but each of these melams keeps its own identity in the method of
percussion. Though the percussion instruments and method of percussion are different in
panchavadyam and pandimelam, both of these orchestral forms have a similarity in the number
of matras in the parallel phases of rhythm succession, so to speak, these phases are set in the
matras containing multiples of seven. Panchavadyam allows space for individual improvisation
also.

Thayampaka, another percussion art form, which presents chenda as its main instrument,
is contrasting with the melam tradition by keeping its unique form as an independent
improvisation. The basic rhythm of thayampaka is champata. It starts in a slow tempo and
steadily progresses through different phases like kooru, idanila and irikida. Finally being set foot
in a full tilt tempo, it excites the mass audience of a temple festival. Keli and maddalappattu,
other two arts those are similar to thayampaka in some stages of performance. There are some
other percussion arts, which are performed as a part of temple rituals. Panikottu is an example.
Kombupattu, a performance mainly on kombu, a wind instrument, gives more attention to tala
than tonal improvisation. Dufmuttu and arabanamuttu are performed by the Muslim community
in the Malabar region of Kerala. Thappumelam, a percussive art on an instrument called thappu
that is associated with a ritual art form padayani, has a special way of performance. This art is
popular in the Southern parts of Kerala.

Generally the art-forms of Kerala have given more attention to percussion than tonal
music. This propensity is reflected in the stylization of percussive art forms. Four to five hour
long percussive performance is very common in temple festivals of Kerala. Whether it is
chendamelam or panchavadyam, starts in very slow first tempo and ends in rapid tempo, is
appealing to the whole audience irrespective of class and mass division. The pièce de résistance
of this culture demands more attention from the music lovers all over the world.

Dr. Manoj Kuroor