Fundamental of Ancient Indian Music and Dance

Author(s): Sureshchandra Benarji
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 56

Instrumental Music
be well refined in fire. The tāla (popularly called karatāla ) will be circular in shape. Its face will be two angulas and a quarter, the inner portion one angula wide and low, the hole in the middle will be a quarter less than a guñjā, the thickness one yava, height one argula and a half. Its form will be even, smooth and beautiful so that it produces sound pleasant to the ear. Strings of borders of cloth are to be passed through the holes and tied with knots at the ends.
Characteristics of a mardala player
Mardala players are of four kinds—vādaku, mukhari, pratimuk hari and guānuga.
Vadaka is derived from vāda which means a mode of disputation. In a vāda, a person takes up his own side and refutes the view of the other side. Similarly, the vādaka takes up the playing. The mukhari is so called because other instrumentalists look up to his face for playing their instruments. He will have the following qualities : capacity for composing vādya-prabandhas, training in dance, skilled in vocal and instrumental music, surekha', concentration, indispensable to the female dancer presence on the stage. The pratimukhart lacks a few of the qualities of the mukhari. He is called gitānuga who, having set the harsh and soft letters, through nāda, mandra, madhya, tāra, follows the song in order to help the madhura through playing the instrument; this is done in both śuddha and sālaga songs. Päța, Pañcasañca, Vädyaprabandha
It is the name given to Vadyaksara, i.e. the letter-like sounds produced in an instrument. The pāļas, which arise from the different positions of the hand, rather the palm, and the strokes made by it, are called hastapāļa. Eighty-eigig hastapāļas have been stated by Śārrigadeva. DHA RA KA TA DHA RA KA TA-it is an example of hastapāļa. Different kinds of pāța, being applied to the instruments like Pațaha,
1 Of a pleasing physical posture.