A Beautiful Stamp Portraying the Building of a Maddalam Drum

This post features the building of a maddalam drum on an Indian stamp from 2018. This stamp was a part of a set of five stamps celebrating the handicrafts of India made that year. Those five stamps feature crafts such as the making of ceramics, the sculpting of statues, basket weavings, and textile making. However, the important stamp for this blog is the wonderful one that honors the art of Indian drum making.

India has a rich tradition of celebrating its musical culture with stamps. This includes honoring historical musical figures such as Purandara Dasa, a fifteenth century musician who was one of the founders of the Carnatic music tradition. India also celebrates contemporary musicians such as the internationally known sitar-player Ravi Shankar.

However, it is far more unusual to feature the craft of instrument building on a stamp. This beautiful stamp has become one of my favorite stamps.

Barrel Drums of India

The drum featured on the stamp is a barrel drum with two skin heads. The drum being built uses leather straps, which zigzag back and farther between the heads, to tighten the heads and thereby tune them. There are a variety of double-headed drums from India that are constructed similarly, but come from different regions or have different ways of playing. Here are a few of the most common drums.

Pakhavaj

The oldest type of barrel drum from India is the pakhavaj. According to tradition, the pakhavaj is the ancestor of the tabla, the most famous Indian drums. The two heads of the pakhavaj correspond to the two drums of the tabla and it is said that the first table were created by splitting a pakhavaj in half.

Before the tabla became popular in the late 18th century, the pakhavaj was the most popular drum to accompany classical Hindustani music in the north of India. It is closely associated with dhrupad music and stringed instruments used in dhrupad.

The pakhavaj is also the ancestor of the mridangam, a barrel-shaped drum that is used in the classical Carnatic music of South India. The pakhavaj is therefore associated with the classical music traditions of both northern and southern India. Similarly, the drum appears in iconography of both the Hindu and Muslim courts.

The barrel shape of the pakhavaj has two heads of different sizes, a larger bass head, and a smaller treble head. The drum is about two feet in length and has a shell wall of about an inch thick. Leather laces zigzag between the heads and are used to apply tension to the heads.

Mridangam

The mridangam is the primary rhythmic accompaniment to the Carnatic ensemble music of South India. It plays a central role in Hindu mythology. Nandi is said to have played the mridangam during Shiva’s tandava dance, which caused a rhythm to sound across the heavens. The instrument also is associated with Ganesha.

Modern mridangam drums are made from the hollowed logs of jackfruit wood. The drums measure slightly smaller than the pakhavaj, approximately twenty inches in length, but it also has a wall thickness of about one inch. Like the pakhavaj, the mridangam also has different sized heads creating a bass and treble tone. However, the mridangam is generally higher in pitch than the pakhavaj. In eastern India, the mridangam is known as the khol.

Maddalam

However, while all of the above drums are related to that being made on the stamp, this instrument is something more specific. The drum is the maddalam, a barrel-shaped drum used in Kerala percussion ensembles. It is very similar in shape and size to the Mrdangam, except that it is much larger and the heads are thicker, giving it a much heavier and lower sound. The drum is also made from jackfruit wood and has two heads. The maddalam, however, is played while standing, instead of while seated like the mrdangam. It is used for the Kathakali dance and to play in Panchavadyam and Keli orchestras.

There are actually many other types of barrel-shaped drums in India such as the dhol, tabhil, and more. However, the pakhavaj and mrdangam are the most important and most closely related to the structure of the maddalam drum featured on the beautiful postage stamp.