Parai

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Frame drum struck with two sticks parai in Tamil Nadu

Parai ( Tamil பறை ), also tappu, thappu (Tamil தப்பு ) and kottu, is a circular single-headed frame drum that is used in the folk music of the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh . The parai , already mentioned in the ancient Tamil literature of the 1st millennium, is played in Tamil Nadu mainly on religious and ceremonial occasions by the lower professional caste ( jati ) of the Paraiyar, from whom the name of the drum was transferred to the social group Paria . In the second half of the 20th century, the parai, with its simply constructed wooden frame and a membrane made of calf skin, underwent a revaluation: it was transformed from a ritual drum of a regional, rural lower class into a cultural symbol of the politically active Tamil Dalit movement. Numerous publications deal with the social changes and conflicts associated with the parai within the Indian caste hierarchy .

A frame drum formed from a metal ring and always used in pairs in the two states is called pirai . The parai of the Tamil-speaking Paraiyar drumming caste in Sri Lanka is a double-headed cylinder drum .

Parai (former spelling parrai ) is also another name for the clay hourglass drum parang ( parrang ) of the Muria, an Adivasi group in the Bastar district in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh .

origin

Sanchi Stupa , west pillar at the north gate . Many believers have gathered to worship the stupa. In the center is a dancer who turns in a circle. In the bottom row there are seven musicians, from left to right: two long natural trumpets similar to the carnyx , a double reed instrument , a barrel drum struck with both hands, a cylinder drum with sticks struck on the upper skin, a large frame drum and probably a vina bow harp .

In the ancient Indian literature written in Sanskrit and Tamil, hundreds of drum names are mentioned, which refer to a form of the numerous drum types or the specific function of a drum. One of the oldest drum names in Sanskrit, dundubhi , which occurs in the Rigveda and in the subsequent classical literature, presumably referred to a wooden kettle drum that was probably used as a war drum and whose current descendants, for example, the kettle drum pair nagara , the great dhamsa of the Santal and other Adivasi groups in East Indies and the little nissan of the Muria are. In addition to the word dundhubi , which could also functionally have stood for a drum used in rituals and warlike contexts, mridangam was the most common name for a drum in the 1st millennium. Different shaped tube drums were meant. The third type of drum, the frame drum, only occurred sporadically in ancient India. In the ancient region of Gandhara in the far north-west of South Asia there were single-headed frame drums, which presumably came from the Near East and later spread to central and southern India.

The frame drums were mostly struck with curved sticks. On a medallion from the Shunga period , which was on the stone fence ( vedika ) of the stupa of Bharhut (2nd – 1st century BC), an elephant can be seen in the center, surrounded by several monkeys. On the right, a monkey beats an hourglass drum that hangs on a strap around its right shoulder with a straight stick. At the lower edge, between the elephant's front feet, another monkey beats a large frame drum with a curved stick that is also hanging around his shoulder. The representations with monkeys are probably scenes from the Jatakas (stories from the Buddha's earlier life ). Large frame drums are also shown at several gates of the stone fence around Stupa 1 by Sanchi (1st century BC). One of the drummers (east gate, outside, bottom row on the left) can see that he is beating the vertical drum with a bent stick in each hand, so he will have it hung around his neck by a strap. A relief from the stupa of Amaravati in southern India (2nd century AD) shows a frame drum rather than a gong . The instrument hangs on a pole that is carried by two dwarfs on their shoulders. It seems to be a double-skinned frame drum because the dwarves beat from both sides with sticks and wide, stretched arms. A wall painting in the Buddhist rock caves of Ajanta (6th century, cave 10) shows a large ensemble of musicians who probably blow trumpets, beat frame drums, clap and dance on the occasion of a religious procession.

myth

In Tamil Nadu, the parai is considered to be the oldest membranophone . To justify its ritual significance, the parai is equated in myth with the small hourglass-shaped rattle drum udukkai or damaru , which appears as an attribute of Shiva . Shiva's drum beats represent the original sound. Shiva, one of the main gods of the Dalits, uses this drum to produce the pulse of cosmic time, he created the universe with it and creates it again and again.

The drum is introduced in a Paraiyar myth of origin, which is mainly used to explain their low social status. The basic narrative of the myth is: Originally there were two poor brothers who met to pray to God. God told them to peel the skin off a dead cow. The older brother wanted to say: "My younger brother should do it", but what was heard was: "My younger brother is a Brahmin" ( pappaan - paappaan ). Thus the younger brother became a brahmin ( paappaan ) and the older a pariyar. Although they are socially at the lower end of society, the Pariyar see themselves as compared to the Brahmins in the position of an older brother who, within the family, ranks just after the father as the head of the family. Only a misunderstanding demoted the Paraiyar who were once equal.

In a variant of this myth it says: Two brothers were priests in a Mariyamman temple. The older brother said he wanted to fast and keep a vow of silence. May the younger brother continue to care for the temple. So he proclaimed: Nan parrayan, tampi parpar, “I am the drummer, the younger brother is the priest” ( parrayan from parai , “drum”, and ar , “person”; parpar from par , “see”, meaning “seer "Wise man, priest"). Here, too, both brothers are at the beginning on the same social level and the older brother, the Paraiyar, turns out to be the more active of the two.

The drum is given its function in the following version: Two Brahmin brothers are called Annan and Tampi. Annan, who worships the deity ( puja ) in the temple every day , is made to kill a cow and then forced to eat its meat. This makes him untouchable, because only one untouchable eats beef, and has to leave the village. When Annan and his wife arrive in another village, they are given a hut there and Annan is assigned the job of a village guard who is to call the community to meetings. In order to be heard better, Annan takes some cowhide and uses it to make a drum ( parai ). Since then he and his kind have been called Paraiyar. For his work, Annan collects and processes the skin of dead cows. Because it has made him unclean, society avoids him. In this version, the Paraiyar have fallen from an originally respected brahmin class into poverty and dependence. According to the origin myths, the Pariyar admit that the exploitation of dead cattle, the consumption of beef, the drumming and the burial are unclean and despicable activities, but do not recognize these as characteristic of their group and as originally separate actions. The social structure through the caste system is not called into question in the myths.

Paraiyar become "untouchables" in the Indian caste system because they process the skins from the name of the cows, which are considered "inviolable" (Sanskrit aghnya ), and beat the drums covered with cowhide with their hands. This brings them into contact with a substance created by the death of the cow. Their ritual duties ( tholil, toril ) include performing at funerals and other family celebrations. The term tholil only refers to the rituals of the "untouchables" and other inferior service boxes . Playing drums brings the Paraiyar into connection with the spirits of the dead (Tamil peey , from Sanskrit pret , “deceased”, “departed”) and the other demons ( bhuta ). The peey are among those who died unhappily, those killed in childbirth, accidents or suicide; they are malevolent unclean spirits who attack people without warning. The Pariyar drummers have to protect humans and divine beings from attacks by the peey .

Word environment

Cylinder drum dappu and cone oboe mukhavina of the Irulas, an Adivasi group in the southwest Indian Nilgiri mountains . The shape and lacing of the dappu are similar to the parai in Sri Lanka. Photo from 1871/72

The caste name Paraiyar is the plural of Paraiyan , which is made up of Tamil parai-an , "drum-person". The name of the drum, parai , is related to paraidal , "to announce" and refers to its function as a signal and ritual instrument at community meetings , temple festivals, funerals and other family occasions. From this translation it was deduced that the parai proclaimed victory after a battle in ancient Tamil times. At that time, the drum was not covered with calf skin, but hunters and warriors with the hairy fur of wild animals. An etymology puts Paraiyar from parai and aiyar ("priest" or "brahmin") together, so the Paraiyar become "priests of the drum" according to their supposedly higher social position. This is to confirm the presumed sacred significance of the parai in ancient Tamil times . In contrast, according to a 1978 study among the Tamils ​​in northern Sri Lanka, the slang expression parai paasah (literally “ pariah language”) occurs with the meaning “vulgar language”. Likewise, the appearance of a shabbily dressed person at an elegant event could be described as parai-k-kulam ("pariah community") or a dog as belonging to a despicable animal species as parai naay ("pariah dog").

The residential area of ​​the Paraiyar professional caste is called Paraicheri and is usually on the edge of the village. Paraiyar, who blow the natural trumpet tarai ( comparable to the tiruchinnam ), always used in pairs during funeral processions , are called Panisaivan and the undertakers are called Vettiyan .

Related names for drums in Dravidian languages include pirai, para and pare . This also means vessels for measuring and storing cereal grains. According to their function, the parai was given appropriate nicknames: Por parai was a "war drum", with the munda parai the arrival of the king was announced and the time of day was announced with a drum variant called nalikaip parai . The "funeral drum " is called sa parai ( sapparai ). In addition to the parai with a circular wooden frame, there is the smaller pirai in Tamil Nadu with a differently shaped iron bracket . In Andhra Pradesh the name tappu is more common instead of parai . Tappu is derived from dappu from the Arabic-Persian word daf for frame drums throughout the Islamic Orient. The name daira, which is common in the same region from southeast Europe to south-central Asia, is rarer in India and only occurs in the north as dara . The term kottu in Tamil Nadu (literally "to beat") is considered rather derogatory.

distribution

According to their diameter, BC Deva (1978) differentiates between three types of single-headed Indian frame drums: The first type has a diameter of 40 to 60 centimeters and a skin made of cowhide or water buffalo skin, which is nailed to the frame or fixed on the underside with a cord. In addition to the parai, these include the daf in northern India ( daff, duff, dhap, with and without a ring wreath , beaten with two wooden sticks or with your hands), the halgi , the changu in Odisha and the amat (t) e or tappate in Karnataka (language Kannada , in Tamil tammati, tappati , and Telugu tammeta, tappeta , all with metal frames). The ghera is a large octagonal frame drum in Rajasthan .

The second type are smaller frame drums with a diameter of 20 to 40 centimeters and brass cymbals (bells) that are inserted into slots in the frame with metal pins. This includes the nationally known kanjari with a single pair of cymbals in the frame, which is beaten with the hands. The third type is only 15 to 20 centimeters in diameter, and its frame, covered with lizard skin, is higher than that of the daf. The best- known examples of the smallest frame drums are the South Indian kanjira , which is not used in folk music like all the others, but in South Indian classical music , and the North Indian kanjari , both struck with bells and by hand. Their shape has been shown on miniatures since the Mughal period (16th century).

There are also a few double-headed frame drums that are played in regional folk music styles, otherwise tube drums and kettle drums are much more common in India due to their number and variety of shapes. In Tamil Nadu, the double-cone drum mridangam is used most frequently, also in classical music, while the dhanki is a rather rare kettle drum . The barrel drum tavil is traditionally part of processions and temple music. The old Tamil hourglass drum amantirikai (related to the idakka ) was also covered with cowhide . Apart from the parai , all other drum membranes in the villages of Tamil Nadu, such as the hourglass drum udukkai (related to the North Indian hurka ), the pambai and the tavil are made of goat skin.

Designs

Top of a frame drum parai
Bottom of this parai

The parai of the Dalits in Tamil Nadu is a medium-sized single-headed frame drum. The calf skin used for covering is first spread out on the floor with the smooth inside facing up and dried in the sun for two days. The drum maker then rubs ash on the side of the hair to remove the hair and clean the fur. The procedure takes two to three days. The calf skin membrane is stretched over a circular wooden frame about 40 centimeters in diameter and glued to the frame. In this traditional method, the taut skin is treated with a broth of mashed and cooked tamarind seeds to tighten it. The frame is ground semicircular on the outside and is composed of three segments. At the butt joints, the wooden parts are fixed by metal strips nailed to the inside. The parai is played in a vertical position either with one hand, one hand and a wooden stick or two wooden sticks. Before and partly during the breaks during the game, the parai must be heated over the fire in order to tighten the membrane and adjust the pitch.

The ciruparai (" snare drum") is a small version of the parai with a membrane made of a lizard skin (Tamil utumpu ). It is comparable in size to the kanjira . The Tamil literary genre Pillaitamil ("Tamil [poetry] of the child") was originally a courtly poetry in homage to the king. She is since 10/11. Century to this day and experienced its heyday in the 14th and 15th centuries. Century. In it, formally divided into ten sections ( paruvam ) with usually ten verses each, the stages in the growing up of a child are described. In the 18th century, the virtues of the child god Murugan in particular were told. In the eighth section of the Murugan story called ciruparai , the four-year-old child plays with his “ snare drum” ( ciruparai ), the constant rhythm of which ( following Shivas damaru ) corresponds to the pulse of the universe. Islamic poets who have been using this literary genre since the 18th century pay homage to the Prophet Mohammed , members of his family or one of the Islamic saints ( walī ) venerated in Tamil Nadu . In the ciruparai section of the Islamic Pillaitamil, the little boy is asked to beat his drum. The verses in this section either have a happy occasion or deal with the destruction of the world according to the Islamic Last Judgment or the Hindu conception.

Found in rural areas of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, pirai (or parai ) is an unusual type of frame drum that comes in two varieties. Both forms belong to the stem drums and consist of a small but stable iron ring to which a curved stem made of the same round rod is welded. At the end of the two wooden plates are attached to which the musician ties the drum to his forehead with the help of a cotton cloth. A thin parchment membrane made of goat skin is tied to the iron ring with a wrap of cord around it. The musician hits the pirai protruding forward above his head with two thin wooden sticks from both sides. The surya pirai (Sanskrit surya , "sun", sun god), also surya mandalam, is circular and has a diameter of 25 centimeters. The chandra pirai (Sanskrit chandra , "moon", moon god), also chandra mandalam , has the shape of a broad crescent moon. The two pirai variants, which have become rare, are beaten in temples to worship the goddess Mariyamman or for village deities, the surya pirai at the puja in the morning and the chandra pirai in the evening. In some places they belong or belonged to temple festivals lasting several days. Another South Asian stem drum is the dhyangro in Nepal, otherwise stem drums occur in Tibetan music and also as shaman's drums in the Eskimos.

Par (r) ai is another word for the hourglass drum parrang (also parrayin, tori parra ) among the Muria, a Dalit group belonging to the Gond in the Bastar district in Chhattisgarh state . According to field research by Verrier Elwin in the 1940s, the parrang is made of clay and has two skins made of cowhide, which are braced against each other with a zigzag lacing. The length is 40 to 60 centimeters with a fur diameter of 23 centimeters. A similar drum in the Muria is the hulki mandri . According to SK Jain, clay drums were rare compared to drums with a wooden body in the 1960s.

The parai or parai melam of the Paraiyar drumming caste in the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka is a large double-headed cylinder drum that is struck on one (right) side with a stick and on the other with the hand. The eponymous frame drum from Tamil Nadu does not occur in Sri Lanka. The way of playing the cylinder drum is similar to the South Indian barrel drum tavil . The form of the parai melam , which is played by the Hindu Tamils ​​in Jaffna and Batticaloa , essentially corresponds to the davula (as tavil is related to davul ), the Sinhalese use in their Buddhist temple music. In Jaffna the parai is slightly larger than in the rest of the country. While the Paraiyar worship the goddess Mariyamman with their drums, the socially somewhat higher Tamil caste of the Nattuvar uses the barrel drum tavil together with the cone oboe nadaswaram for religious music in honor of other gods such as Pillaiyar (a Tamil name for Ganesha ). The head of a Paraiyar community in Sri Lanka with the title muppan possesses a “king's drum ” ( raca melam ) as the insignia of the entire professional caste . The raca melam of Tivukkudi (near Kokkadichcholi, west side of the Batticaloa lagoon) is a double-skinned tubular brass drum, waisted in the middle, which was introduced in 1839 as the district's representative drum.

Style of play and cultural significance

Tamil Nadu

Group parai players in Tamil Nadu

The parai of the Dalits is considered to be the oldest drum, which is said to have originated in prehistoric times. This assessment has been emphasized since the drum was upgraded from an “impure” ritual instrument of the “untouchables” to a positive symbol of Tamil identity after the middle of the 20th century. Previously, the parai was also considered ominous because, in addition to other, rather happy occasions, it is used in funeral processions with loud blows to drive away evil spirits. In their myths, the Paraiyar portray themselves as originally equal to or even superior to the Brahmins, but they accept their subsequently achieved low, “impure” status as a determination of a divine will. By upgrading their drums, the Paraiyar also value their social status higher. They justify this with new myths in which the positive evaluation of the drum and other attributes of their group are justified. In addition, not all Paraiyar, but also other Dalit groups (in Tamil Nadu the Pallar and the Arunthathiyar) occasionally play the parai .

The ritual use of the parai is one of the ritual and religious services ( tholil ) that Hindu Paraiyar have provided for socially superior villagers for centuries. Other tholil of the Paraiyar, all of which are related to drumming, are the dissemination of death reports, the conduct of cremations, the guarding of the village and the removal of dead cattle. Ceremonial occasions include the temple festival for Mariyamman and pongal , the Tamil harvest festival. During the ceremonies, the parai's blows are supposed to keep the evil spirits away. Music with a certain rhythmic structure ( talam ) is assigned to the various occasions . A parai ensemble ideally consists of one member of each of the four Paraiyar subcases ( vagaiyara ) who plays the parai and a fifth musician who beats the horizontally held kettle drum satti melam with two sticks . The body of the satti is made of clay and is covered with goat skin. Even if the musicians perform on a happy occasion, they are not allowed to be in the immediate vicinity of a temple with the parai .

Parai group at a family celebration in front of a private home. A kolam is painted on the floor .

Between 1913 and 1947 the Paraiyar Tamil Nadus (together with the Madhari, formerly “untouchable” leather workers) converted to Christianity in large numbers, maintaining the social class of their professional caste. This does not mean that Christians and Hindus of the appropriate caste affiliation traditionally marry one another. Paraiyar, together with other Dalit groups, make up at least two-thirds of Tamil Nadu's Protestant Christians, the rest belong to an upper and a middle caste. The religious rituals adopted from the Hindu tradition that Christians in Tamil Nadu carry on include the devotional singing style kirtan (as kirttanai ) and the idea of ​​a disease- causing obsession with malevolent spirits, which is widespread among Catholics. Accordingly, the Paraiyar continued to exercise their social and ceremonial obligations ( tholil ) to the higher Hindu castes , because they viewed these as a religious commandment. It took a long transition process before the Paraiyar recognized a connection between Hindu belief and their drumming and looked for an opportunity to give up the latter as well. During the harvest festival ( pongal ) in the village of Pappanallur ( Maduranthakam sub-district ) in January 1996, there was a solid dispute between the Paraiyar drummers and the higher-caste Vanniyar over a piece of land, which both groups claimed to use for themselves. This dispute formed the occasion for the Pariyar to completely stop their drumming and all other centuries-old ceremonial and other services, which also included digging graves. The escalation in this conflict and similar cases since the 1940s came mainly from the Pariyar and, from a perspective of oppression, represented an attack on the hierarchy of the caste system.

The Pariyar experienced a similar change in awareness in other villages in Tamil Nadu. Instead of the assessment, the game of parai is an "impure" activity and an act of social subordination, suggested researchers and other commentators on the development, the Paraiyar like but the drum and its cultural heritage with an up to alttamilische time tradition going back and not to be understood as a drum for the dead ( sapparai ) at funeral ceremonies , but as an ancient war drum ( porpparai ) to announce battles. According to V. Valamarthi (1999), the parai should have developed from its warlike and “wild” beginnings - which is why it was initially covered with the hairy fur of a wild animal - to a refined musical instrument that was played in temples. Then the politically influential Brahmins under the Chola rulers (848–1279) would have degraded the parai to an impure instrument. Therefore, according to Valamarthi, the ancient history of the drum has to be reconstructed. Sathianathan Clarke (1998) traces drumming in Tamil Nadu back to the 4th century, when the drum used for military and religious purposes was called murasu , and recognizes a parallel, if not a parallel, in the once sacred and later “impure” parai a symbol of the social decline of the Paraiyar in the course of history. Regardless of the question of whether these attempts to attribute a glorious phase to the Paraiyar during the high culture of the Chola Empire, have a historical basis or merely represent an invented myth of origin, they in any case contribute to the self-confidence of those who now proudly call themselves “Dalit” at.

The term "Dalit" is chosen by those social groups that are officially listed as Scheduled Castes , but who rebel against the existing caste system. Representatives of the Dalits, who have been fighting for social upgrading on the political stage since the 1980s, organize Dalit cultural festivals with the aim of recognizing previously stigmatized forms of cultural expression and especially the "unclean" drum. At the end of the 20th century the change took place from the complete refusal to play the parai to its new field of application as a time-honored folk musical instrument. With the strategic slogan “The Dalit arts are the weapons for the liberation of the Dalits”, the parai has become a symbol of social rebellion. Apart from the parai , the changes in the Christian singing style kirttanai , into which elements from Tamil folk music flowed after the middle of the 20th century, represent the musical aspect of the Dravidian movement directed against the Brahmins .

In some Tamil films with a socially critical tenor, political activists used the parai . These include: Sivappu Malli ("Red Jasmin", 1981, directed by Rama Narayanan) and Sangamam (from Sanskrit sangam , " Confluence ", 1999, directed by Suresh Krissna), a dance drama in which the competition between classical dance and musical styles and styles of folk tradition goes. In the Tamil soap opera Thendral (2003, director: S. Kumaran) the play on the parai is praised as “liberation music” in a song . Some critics of this development state that the Paraiyar are playing drums again at funerals for higher-ranking castes and that this, although now declared as an art form, is nevertheless a relapse into old patterns of rule. If some Dalits beat the parai as an "art form", this is of little use to other Dalits, who feel compelled to continue to drum at funerals as an obligation for higher ranks in the social system as an obligation for their caste. Tensions between different Dalit groups also come to light. The parai and the folk music rhythms played with it are also often incorporated into the commercial pop music of the dance scenes of Tamil films - without any thematic reference .

Sri Lanka

Kettle drum pair tamattama of the Sinhalese, corresponds to the tampattam of the Paraiyar. Played with two curved sticks kadippu .

The double-headed cylinder drum parai melam is an essential part of the traditional culture of the Tamils ​​of Sri Lanka , whose main settlement area is the northern province . As in South India, the drum-playing Paraiyar are considered "untouchables". Their music is needed for funerals like there, despite their low reputation towards the temple music periya melam (with nadaswaram , tavil , shrutibox and hand cymbal talam ) and carnatic (classical) music. In addition to funerals, the parai melam music is also used in some sacrificial ceremonies and, for example, at the Selva Sannithi Murugan temple in Jaffna .

On the east coast, next to Hindu Tamils, there are Muslim moors who are outside the caste system. Even below the Paraiyar in the social hierarchy are the Methodist Kadaiyar (traditionally lime burners) , who belong to the Tamils, and the Kuravar, who were registered under the Criminal Tribes Act in colonial times and are considered "gypsies". The upper land-owning castes are the Velalar and the Mukkuvar; the latter had political power in pre-colonial times. In the villages in the Batticaloa area on the east coast, the Paraiyar provide the local Velalar or Mukkuvar with their ritual services. The Paraiyar drummers, together with the Navitar (hairdressers) and Vannar ( launders ), form the three service sets ( kutimai ), whose offers are among the privileges of the upper caste. The Paraiyar receive some money for playing drums at funeral processions, temples and other ritual events and, according to old tradition, certain natural products. An opportunity for Paraiyar drummers is the Tamil New Year Puthandu , which is celebrated on the first day of the Tamil month of Chithirai according to the Hindu calendar with drums and dances for the landowners at the gates of their properties.

The leader of a local Paraiyar drum group ( muppan ) possesses as his mark of dignity and at the same time as an emblem of the entire community a double-headed drum made of decorated brass, which is called raca melam ("king's drum "). In some places the raca melam is just a miniature drum or an ordinary parai wrapped in a piece of cloth. The raca melam is brought to all public appearances and symbolizes their ritual significance for the Paraiyar.

In addition to the cylinder barrel, the Paraiyar play Slapped with two curved sticks boiler drum pair tampattam (Sinhalese tamattama called) and the short double reed kuzhal . A distinction is made between 18 rhythms ( talam ) when playing drums, two of which are considered ominous because they are reserved for funerals. The rest of the rhythms considered auspicious are used on ceremonial occasions and for entertainment. At the events, the parai drummers move with dance steps and body turns , while the tampattam and kuzhal players remain in their place. The Sinhalese Berava have a ritual significance comparable to that of the Tamil Paraiyar and at the same time have the lowest social status. The ritual specialists of the Berava (named after the word bera , "drum") are the largest professional drummers and dancers in Sri Lanka. Like the Paraiyar, they claim - within the Buddhist social order - to have had a high rank in earlier times and to descend from the Brahmins.

documentary

  • This is a Music: Reclaiming an Untouchable Drum. Directed by Zoe C. Sherinian, 2015 ( content and preview )

literature

Web links

Commons : Parai  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Courtney: Nissan, Mawaloti, or Lohati. chandrakantha.com (illustration)
  2. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: Musical Instruments . National Book Trust, New Delhi 1977, p. 45
  3. ↑ Walter Kaufmann : Old India. Music history in pictures. Volume II. Ancient Music. Delivery 8. Ed. Werner Bachmann. VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1981, pp. 31, 33
  4. ↑ Walter Kaufmann, 1981, pp. 48, 62, 66
  5. ↑ Walter Kaufmann, 1981, pp. 104, 172
  6. ^ J. Rajasekaran, David Blake Willis (2003, p. 72)
  7. ↑ Robert Deliege: The Myths of Origin of the Indian Untouchables . In: Man, New Series, Vol. 28, No. 3, September 1993, pp. 533-549, here pp. 536-539
  8. ^ Michael Moffatt: An Untouchable Community in South India: Structure and Consensus. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1979, pp. 112f
  9. ↑ a b Alastair Dick, Zoe C. Sherinian: Paṟai, 2015
  10. ↑ C. Joe Arun, 2007, pp. 97f
  11. ↑ S. Suseendiraraja: Caste and Language in Jaffna Society. In: Anthropological Linguistics, Volume 20, No. 7, October 1978, pp. 312-319, here p. 315
  12. ^ Vijaya Ramaswamy: Historical Dictionary of the Tamils . The Scarecrow Press, Lanham (Maryland) 2007, p. 182, sv "Parayar"
  13. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: Musical Instruments . National Book Trust, New Delhi 1977, pp. 27f
  14. ↑ Prateek Chaudhuri: Experimentation in instrumental music in India . (Dissertation) University of Delhi, 2012, p. 168
  15. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva, 1978, p. 75
  16. ↑ Heide Nixdorff: On the typology and history of frame drums. Critical consideration of traditional instrument terminology. ( Baessler archive . Contributions to ethnology. New series - Supplement 7) Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1971, p. 146
  17. ^ Michael Moffatt: An Untouchable Community in South India: Structure and Consensus. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1979, p. 112
  18. ^ C. Joe Arun (2007, p. 86)
  19. ↑ Michael Moffatt, 1979, p. 198
  20. ↑ John Stratton Hawley: Krishna, the Butter Thief. (1983) Princeton University Press, Princeton 2014, p. 44
  21. ↑ Kamil Zvelebil: Tamil Literature. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1974, p. 215
  22. ↑ Paula Richman: Veneration of the Prophet Muhammad in an Islamic Piḷḷaittamil. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 113, No. 1, January-March 1993, pp. 57-74, here p. 68
  23. ↑ Candra pirai late 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  24. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva, 1978, pp. 75f
  25. ↑ M. Lalitha, M. Nandini: Drums that have fallen silent . The Hindu, March 16, 2018
  26. ↑ Verrier Elwin: The Muria and Their Ghotul . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1947, p. 525; see. Sibyl Marcuse : Musical Instruments: A Comprehensive Dictionary. A complete, authoritative encyclopedia of instruments throughout the world. Country Life Limited, London 1966, p. 395, sv Parrang
  27. ^ SK Jain: Wooden Musical Instruments of the Gonds of Central India. In: Ethnomusicology, Volume 9, No. 1, January 1965, pp. 39-42, here p. 39
  28. ↑ Melam, from Sanskrit mela , "assembly", "meeting", is a general word for "drum" or "drum ensemble" in South India.
  29. ↑ Dennis B. McGilvray (1983, p. 103)
  30. ↑ Nimal Veerasingham: Music and dances of Batticaloa. Sri Lankans closer to each other than they think. The Island, May 13, 2018
  31. ↑ Jim Sykes: Culture as Freedom: Musical “Liberation” in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. In: Ethnomusicology, Volume 57, No. 3, Fall 2013, pp. 485-517, here p. 502
  32. ↑ Dennis B. McGilvray, 1983, p. 102
  33. ^ C. Joe Arun, 2007, p. 82
  34. ^ C. Joe Arun, 2007, pp. 82, 84
  35. ^ C. Joe Arun, 2007, pp. 87, 89
  36. ↑ John CB Webster: A history of the Dalit Christians in India . Mellen Research University Press, New York 1992, p. 39
  37. ^ David Mosse: South Indian Christians, Purity / Impurity, and the Caste System: Death Ritual in a Tamil Roman Catholic Community. In: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Volume 2, No. 3, September 1996, pp. 461-483, here p. 463
  38. ^ Zoe C. Sherinian: Musical Style and the Changing Social Identity of Tamil Christians. In: Ethnomusicology, Volume 51, No. 2, Spring – Summer 2007, pp. 238–280, here p. 240
  39. ↑ See Robert Deliège: Demonic Possession in Catholic South India . In: Indian Anthropologist, Volume 37, No. 1 ( Special issue on the Ethnography of Healing ) January-June 2007, pp. 49-66
  40. ^ C. Joe Arun, 2007, p. 93
  41. ↑ V. Valamarthi: Parai. (Tamil) Thirumagal Nilayam, Chennai 1999, cit. according to: C. Joe Arun, 2007, p. 98
  42. ↑ Sathianathan Clarke: Dalits and Christianity: Subaltern religion and liberation theology in India. Oxford University Press, New Delhi 1998, p. 119
  43. ^ C. Joe Arun, 2007, p. 99
  44. ↑ Hugo Gorringe, 2016, p. 4
  45. ^ Zoe C. Sherinian: Musical Style and the Changing Social Identity of Tamil Christians. In: Ethnomusicology, Volume 51, No. 2, Spring – Summer 2007, pp. 238–280, here p. 261
  46. ↑ Hugo Gorringe, 2016, pp. 15, 22
  47. ^ Fiona Margaret Page Dalton, 2008, p. 78
  48. ↑ Pathmanesan Sanmugeswaran: Performing Auspiciousness and Inauspiciousness in Parai Mēlam Music Culture in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. In: Birgitta Burger, Joshua Bamford, Emily Carlson (Eds.): Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology (SysMus16) , Jyväskylä (Finland), 8. – 10. June 2016
  49. ↑ Dennis B. McGilvray, 1983, pp. 100f
  50. ↑ Dennis B. McGilvray (1983, p. 103)
  51. ^ Marianne Nurnberger, Bob Simpson: Social Distribution of Knowledge Among Sri Lankan Ritual Dancers. In: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute , Volume 4, No. 2, June 1998, pp. 348-352, here p. 348