Request for information concerning two words for musical instruments
rajam
rajam at EARTHLINK.NET
Sun Dec 18 16:00:24 UTC 2011
1. As a person from Madurai in South India, I'm very familiar with
the "nagaraa" drum used during festivals of the local temple.
2. In my ancestral village Viravanallur (Tirunelveli District),
there's a "nagaraa mandapam" close to our agraharam.
3. Upon my request to a professor in Chennai (Tamilnadu, South
India), I got the following details. This professor is married to a
woman from Meghalaya, so the details must have solid authenticity.
Here are the details with two images of the drums attached.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From Professor Nagarajan Vadivel:
----------------------------------------------
Meghalaya's main ethnic communities, each having its own distinctive
customs and cultural traditions are the Khasis (of Mon-Khmer
ancestry), the Garos (of Tibeto-Burman origin) and the Jaintias said
to be from South East Asia. The common trait binding all three
communities is its matrilineal system in which the family linage is
taken from the mother's side
The principal languages in Meghalaya are Khasi, Pnar and Garo with
English as the official language of the State. It was at the
initiative of the Christian missionaries that the Khasi, Pnar and
Garo languages and literature have developed and emerged in the list
of Modern Indian Languages.
The Khasi language is believed to be one of the very few surviving
dialects of the Mon-khmer family of languages in India today.
I am afraid that there is a mix up in the terms mentioned in the
email.
“One of the drums collected was from the Khasi of Meghalaya, a wooden
kettledrum named by the Khasi as ka naakraa. Sachs traces the etymology
through Arabic, Persian, Hindustani/Urdu (naqqaara, which is
correct), and
Skt. naagaraa (?).
A second drum from the Garo of western Meghalaya, a double-headed wooden
drum, has the Garo name dama, for which Sachs indicates 'zu sanskr.
daamaamaa' (?). In South Asian tradition, damaamaa is a Persian and Urdu
name for a very large metal kettledrum in Mughal India.
http://megtourism.gov.in/garofest.html
Wangala Festival
The Wangala is a Garo post-harvest festival that marks the end of the
agricultural year. It is an act of thanksgiving to the sun god of
fertility, known as Misi-A-Gilpa-Saljong-Galapa. A nagara (a special
drum used for calling the people on solemn occasions) is beaten. The
men wear dhotis, half-jackets and turbans with feathers. The women
wear colourful dresses made of silk, blouses and a head-wrap with
feathers. The highlight of the festival is when 300 dancers and 100
drums descend on the field in all their splendour in celebration.
The Khasis and Jaintias are particularly fond of songs praising the
nature like lakes, waterfalls, hills etc. and also expressing love
for their land. They use different types of musical instruments like
drums, duitara and instruments similar to guitar, flutes, pipes and
cymbals.
http://musicforum.weebly.com/1/category/all/1.html
As far as the written form is concerned the Kashi language is like
Tamil has a huge repository of poems in oral form depicting the
valor, love and devotion to nature. Attempt was made to introduce
the script to kashi using Sylhet Nagai. The people of Meghalaya did
not adopt the Bengali script. The Britishers who a charter with the
ruler of Meghalaya developed the Roman script and the Roman script is
currently used.
In the field of music due to its proximity to Hindi belt and due to
the dominance of Persian in the area many words could have entered
into the daily usasge words in the speech community. As indicated
below damaru is an Indian term and not an Islamic term. Since the
inquiry is is on ethnomusicology the following passage will be of help
The invasion of India by Persian and the Mongolian armies brought in
a newer stream, though contacts with these countries were centuries
older. The mercantile, religious and martial connections of northern
Indian with its bordering lands had been in existence from ages, and
with these also were linked the exchange of music and instruments.
Various flutes and drums as depicted in our own murals as well as in
those of Central Asia, besides certain common words in music, bear
ample testimony to this fact. But, a drastic encounter began by about
the 11th Century A.D. from when what is termed the Islamic influence
noticeable begins. However, it may not be correct to call all this
Islamic, except for the Sufi content and spirit, just as it would not
be right to think of a musical instrument as of Hindu origin, except
the damaru, the veena and the venu which have definite associations
with the pantheon. Be that as it may, along with the fresh ingress,
developed different musical forms and quite possibly even instruments
such as the daff, the sitar, the sarode and the shehnai were brought
by these aliens.
While it has to be conceded that number of instruments have come to
us from outside, it is equally true that quite a large number have
also traveled out. The Far East received many instruments from India,
mainly through traders and Buddhist monks who went on missionary
work; so has the Middle West. As a matter of fact, the general
consensus of opinion is that bowed instruments originated here and
then migrated to various parts of the world. Again, from the 8th
Century A.D. till about the 15th Yavadveepa and Suvarnadveepa
(present Indonesia) were highly Indianized musically, which fact is
revealed in the names of their old instruments: padahi (Skt. Pataha),
murava (Skt. Muraja, Tamil murasu), vangsi (Skt. vamsi), kahala,
ghanta and bheri.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hope it helps,
V.S. Rajam
On Dec 17, 2011, at 7:35 PM, Gregory Bailey wrote:
> Dear List,
>
> A colleague who is not on the list made the request, included below.
>
> If anybody can throw some light on this I would be most appreciative.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Greg Bailey
>
>
> “One of the drums collected was from the Khasi of Meghalaya, a
> wooden
> kettledrum named by the Khasi as ka naakraa. Sachs traces the
> etymology
> through Arabic, Persian, Hindustani/Urdu (naqqaara, which is
> correct), and
> Skt. naagaraa (?).
>
> A second drum from the Garo of western Meghalaya, a double-headed
> wooden
> drum, has the Garo name dama, for which Sachs indicates 'zu sanskr.
> daamaamaa' (?). In South Asian tradition, damaamaa is a Persian and
> Urdu
> name for a very large metal kettledrum in Mughal India.
>
> Though both local drum names could well be loan words from South Asian
> culture, in my annotations I indicate that naagaraa and daamaamaa
> cannot
> be traced in Skt. (Could not find either in my M.M-W. and Macdonell
> dictionaries.)
>
> Is this comment correct? If they are traceable, I imagine it would
> be as
> very late loan words into Skt. but don't know of the sources to
> confirm or
> deny this.
>
> At the moment I'm retaining my 'not traceable' comment. Any light
> you can
> shed on this relatively minor yet tricky issue, given the prestige
> of Skt.
> in South Asia and Sachs in ethnomusicology, would be greatly
> appreciated.
> It doesn't seem appropriate to let Sachs's Skt. connections stand,
> however
> well intended, if they are a mistake. I simply don't know where he
> obtained his ideas about Skr. naagaraa and daamaamaa, and question
> their
> validity.”
>
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