T. M. Krishna

I would first like to thank the author for writing this book. This is something every Karnatik musician and music lover should read and learn to recognise what goes behind the making of a Mrdangam. Just the fact that it is an instrument that has membranes made of animal skin, and that animals are specifically selected to be slaughtered for this, that there is a stark caste divide at play, that the Mrdangam makers are often relegated to the status of 'repairers' without acknowledging the fact that the artist only plays it and barely knows anything about even repairing it, escapes our minds unless someone like Krishna points it out. He has painstakingly conducted interviews with the makers and their families, collected oral history from both the makers and the artists and written this important book.

The book can be edited better: the first two chapters feels like the author is trying to find his voice, similar to how some vocalists need to sing a piece or two at the start of a concert to set their voice right; the anatomy of the Mrdangam contains mostly Tamil words (understandably so) which makes it for readers not fluent in Tamil to keep track of what they mean, and this makes it hard to follow the detailed descriptions. This could be fixed by adding a glossary (instead of or in addition to the pronunciation guide).… (meer)