It's generally agreed that hand drums date back at least 6,000 years, but nobody knows for sure when Indian drums first appeared. We do know that a very advanced and sophisticated culture of drumming developed in India thousands of years ago.
In the Sanskrit classic, Panchatantra (2OO BC), it is related that there exist 49 types of rhythms. The ancient Indian sage and musicologist, Bharata Muni, declared in his, now classic, Natya Shastra (200-400 BC) that music consists of seven notes, three scales, twenty-one modulations, forty-nine rhythms and three speeds.
It can be reasonably assumed that, in its infancy, drumming consisted of a two-beat rhythm. This rhythm is basic to Indian drumming, as it is throughout the world.
But in Indian drumming, this fundamental rhythm evolved, little by little, into rhythms of 4, 8, 12 and 16 beats and their variations. A single beat was added to the primary rhythm and the three beat rhythm was born. Different combinations of beats resulted in 5 and 7 beat rhythms, also with variations.
And so it went: different combinations and permutations only led to further possibilities. As the possibilities grew, so did the need for Indian hand drums capable of producing the growing variety of rhythms and vocabularies.
In this way, India has made incalculable contributions to the music of the world. None greater than in the sphere of drumming. No nation can claim a rhythmic art as elaborate and complete as India, nor a system of notation that can compare.
With the passage of time, India only continues to refine the art of drumming. Let's take a look at some of hand drums of India that make this possible.

свернуть