Nagra (drum)
Nagra , nāgrā , is a large kettle drum with a body made of clay belonging to the Garo people in the northeast Indian state of Meghalaya . The nagra has a ritual meaning and may only be beaten as a news drum by the village head in his house .
Design
The large semicircular body is made of fired clay. The membrane made of a cowhide is held in place by a skin ring around the edge and stretched with parallel strips of skin to an iron ring on the floor, in the middle of which there is a small hole. The drum is struck with two sticks. A kettle drum used in the same function and meaning with a body made of Gamhar wood ( Gmelina arborea ) is called dimdima . It is rarely found today and has largely been replaced by the version with a tone body.
Cultural meaning
The Garo nagra , like the great dhamsa widespread in northern India, with its body made of sheet iron, belongs to a group of kettle drums played individually or in pairs called nāgara ( nakkara ). In Assam this ritual drum is called nāgārā . Other ceremonial kettle drums with a body made of metal south of the Himalayan region are the damaha in Nepal, the zanga used in Buddhist monasteries in Sikkim , the kettle drum played in pairs in the Chitral district in northern Pakistan and the very large bher used in Sufi ceremonies in the Pakistani Sindh Province is needed.
In classical Sanskrit texts, the name dimdima occasionally stands for the small hourglass drum damaru , which is especially known as an attribute of Shiva .
Musical instruments are classified by the Garo according to their use in religious-ritual or entertaining music. The first group includes the long double-headed tubular drum dama and the shorter, larger krām , both with a wooden body. The stuff is at funerals and religious ceremonies from the small, consisting of Holzröhrentrommel Nadide ( Natik ) and the natural trumpet adil accompanied. The tubular zither chigring , which is usually played by men and women for entertainment, and the stringed lute sarinda do not belong to the sacred area . The gong rang is only in the hands of rich families and is a sign of wealth.
A nagra may only be owned by the village head ( Garo language nokma , from nok , "house"). He is the richest man in the village, administers the common land according to old tradition and is the only one authorized to perform the Ganna Nokma ceremony, with which he creates a reputation in society.
The boiler drum hangs on the wall in his house. Even when playing, it stays in place on the wall. The nokma uses her to call the villagers to a religious festival or an entertainment event and suggests her in honor of the guests present. It is not used for making music or with other instruments. It serves as a signaling instrument in the event of dangers such as a fire outbreak or when the enemy is approaching. Only the nokma or a male relative is allowed to operate the drum. Should the drum leave the house, it would mean bad luck. During the war against the colonial British conquerors of the Garo highlands in 1872, the young men were rounded up with the dimdima to fight. Relatives of the nokma treat the drum with respect and offer rice beer ( ka kiad hiar ) in honor of it .
literature
- Keyword: Garo Musical Instruments. In: Late Pandit Nikhil Ghosh (Ed.): The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Music of India. Saṅgīt Mahābhāratī. Vol. 1 (A – G) Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2011, p. 336
Individual evidence
- ↑ Azalea Birch: An Introduction to the Lepcha Musical Instruments and Songs. In: Bulletin of Tibetology , Volume 49, No. 2, 2013, pp. 45-62, here pp. 56f
- ↑ Alastair Dick: Bher. In: Grove Music Online , January 13, 2015
- ↑ Dilip Ranjan Barthakur: The Music and Musical Instruments of North Eastern India. Mittal Publications, New Delhi 2003, p. 55
- ↑ JLR Marak: Gure rodila or Horse Festival. ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )