'polluting' effect of leather in music?

[adheesh sathaye]

Hello everyone,

I wonder if the low social  status of drummers--in particular I have in mind
the paraiyans of Tamil Nadu, is more due with the powers/spirits associated
with the _context_ of their drumming rather than the specific nature of the
instruments they play; the paraiyans are primarily associated, as far as I
know, with funerals, and therefore are thus 'polluted' by the dangerous and
violent  spirits  they deal with  in the cremation grounds, rather than by
the leather on their drum. 
This would also explain the lack of such a castigation of the classical
tabla/mrdangam player, as the players of  such instruments are not present
in such environments....
This sort of contextual consideration  is certainly not an unusual paradigm
in S. Asian thought, as evidenced by the entirety of the mAnavadharmashAstra....

--Adheesh
--------------______________---------------------_____________---------------
adheesh at uclink4.berkeley.edu
510-704-0443	
	'Suddenly Marathi is everywhere.'--C. Masica, 1991.