Mizhavu

Mizhavu ( Malayalam: മിഴാവ് [ mɨɻa ː ʋɯ ], also milavu ​​, miravu, mizhav ) is a drum with a large, ovoid or circular body of copper, as the traditional dance theater Kutiyattam and allied, Kuthu mentioned solo theater styles in the southern Indian state of Kerala rhythmic musical accompaniment is employed. The very old, religiously revered percussion instrument can be assigned to any standard drum category and, with its tiny compared to the corpus membrane transition between the boiler drum and Schlagidiophon dar.

Design and style of play

The roughly oval body has the shape of a pot-bellied, downwardly tapering vase with a maximum length of 53-63 centimeters, a round bottom and a short neck, the opening diameter is about 15 centimeters. One such tool is a little over a meter high. A circular mizhavu, venerated ( 13 kilometers south of Alappuzha ) at Sri Krishna Temple of Ambalappuzha, has a diameter of just 1.5 meters. To produce a common today, oval mizhavu a strip of copper sheet is bent and soldered together into a conical tube. The bottom and the top part obtained by driving with a hammer her half- round shape before all three parts are soldered together. The base of the neck with a round-rolled bead edge is manufactured separately and placed on the appropriately sized hole cut. A small hole at the end laterally proposed to produce the desired sound. One of the craftsmen spans a moist, untanned animal skin as a membrane over the opening, while a second skin by the edge and binds with a several times in a circle wrapped cotton cord.

The mizavu must not be placed on the floor, she stands with her round bottom on a soft pillow-like pad surrounded by a square fence of horizontal timbers. The player sits on the widened at one side edge of this wood frame that mizhavu. Between his spread knees and hips in the amount of the eardrum He hits with a palm or alternately with both hands on the eardrum, which strikes are not common to the body. The sound sounds metallic and is significantly higher than in a boiler drum of similar size because of the small fur diameter.

Origin and Distribution

Mizhavus are based on the division in Bharata's work Natyashastra, which was built around the time of Christ and in the ancient Indian music theory Gandharva is included, the musical instrument class avanaddha vadya ( " covered instrument " ), ie to the membranophones in which a firm tone, metal or wooden body is covered with an animal skin, and which were in Sanskrit commonly called Pushkara in the Vedic literature. Their invention is linked to a saint who wanted to draw water from a lake ( Pushkara also means lake ), as Indra rain from the sky, let the drops sounded in the ears of the saints. Then Selbiger to make drums began. At this time there was a now disappeared drum, which is described in the Vedas as bhumi dundubhi ( bhumi, "earth", dundubhi designated boiler drums ) It consisted of a deep hole in the ground with a stretched over and nailed on the edge of ox hide, with the tail the ox was beaten.

Many Indian drums have retained a symbolic and magical significance. The mizhavu is an old drum that is worshiped religiously ever since. In early Tamil literature the instrument is mentioned as muzha, which also commonly referred to Membranophones. Before a finished mizhavu may be used, a Brahmin priest must perform a ceremony whose magical significance is as old as the idea of ​​the age of the drum and leads back to the Vedic period. In the Upanayanam ceremony called the priest hanging around his neck, the drum with flower leis, pours holy water on it, burns incense and reciting mantras. Here, the mizhavu is treated as if it were a young Brahmin who is incarnated by the well known ceremony in the celibate stage of brahmacharya, one of the four ideal stages of life in which the Brahmin follows a guru and the scriptures taught. For a no longer usable drum also, a ceremony will be held at which the instrument is honorably wrapped in a cloth and buried in the ground.

Another religiously revered drum is made of metal in the East Indies played at the Chhau Dance Theatre cauldrons dhamsa drum with a body made of sheet iron. More closely related to the mizhavu the Panchamukha occasionally used in religious occasions in South India vadya ( pancha mukha vadyam, "Five Faces instrument" ) is consists of a large, rounded top copper or bronze vessel with nearly flat bottom. Top symmetrical five small cylindrical drum body are recognized and covered with cow hides, which are beaten with the hands in the middle. This allows five tones produce, both sides established small metal boiler drums ( kudamuzha ) complete the set with two more tones. The instrument is moved to a small wooden car within the temple grounds.

Main application of the copper drum is the Sanskrit theater Kutiyattam that is listed by the members of the Brahmin population groups Chakyar and Nambiar that belong together with other groups to the caste of busy with the temple service Ambalavasi. The Chakyar represent the male roles that are allowed to play Nambiar mizhavu the only one and the women of the Nambiar, the Nangiar, take over the female roles of dance theater. Because the beaten mizhavu with hands, which are also called Nambiar Panivadas, "play" of Sanskrit pani "hands" and vadanam.

The accompanying music was previously only from a mizhavu, today next to belong to the ensemble the hourglass idakka, one or two small cymbals ( kulitalam ) and the conch Shanku. Traditionally Kutiyattam is the 16 kuttampalams listed only in one specific theater buildings that are located within a walled temple area in Kerala. Temple in Kerala and thus the Kutiyattam performances are accessible only for Hindus. In kuttampalam the mizhavu stands in her wooden frame at the center back of the stage. Before that act on the performer. The audience is placed divided by box; sit in the front rows, the Brahmans on a slightly raised area on the floor, sit behind the Kshatriyas on the ground, the other spectators stand outside at the edges.

A related with Kutiyattam, equally old theater form are solo performances that in Kerala Kuthu ( Kuttu, English transliteration Koothu, "dance" ) are called while Kuti yattam ( " combines Dance" ) on two or more performers relates. When Chakyar Kuthu embodies an actor of Chakyar all roles and acts with a mizhavu player as a companion sitting right behind him, and Nangiar - women playing cymbals. The actor told with humor and ridicule scenes from the great epics of Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Puranas from.

The female counterpart to Chakyar Kuthu will be listed by a Nangiar woman solo dance theater Nangiar Kuthu that includes stories from the life of Krishna. It is also accompanied by the copper drum and cymbals.

Panchari melam is the most famous percussion orchestra, which occurs during religious festivals in Kerala on the temple grounds. Instruments include the cylinder drum Chenda (similar to the chande in Karnataka ), the couple 's pool elathalam, the curved natural trumpet kombu and the double reed instrument kuzhal (similar to a shehnai ). Melam In a mizhavu Panchari the other instrumentalists are grouped around several mizhavu player.