Jaltarang

Jaltarang

Jalarang, also jal tarang, jalarangam (from Sanskrit jal, "water" and tarang "wave" or "sequence of tones") is an Indian musical instrument that belongs to the idiophones. It consists of 15 to 22 porcelain bowls, filled with water, placed in a semicircle and struck with light sticks. The water volume and the size of the bowls can be used to tune the sound.

The jalarang is mentioned in the ancient Indian Sanskrit literature as udaka vadyam ("water instrument"), it is found in Kamasutra. Alexander the Great is said to have brought back from India musicians, including jaltarang players. There is no reliable data on the origin. A similar metal musical instrument is depicted in a Greek manuscript from the fourth century and appears in a 9th century Byzantine text. From the 10th century, sources from China and Malaysia report on this. In India the jararang is first mentioned in the 17th century by the South Indian musician Ahobal in his work on ancient Indian music, Sangit parijat.

Before the introduction of the porcelain (after the 10th century) metal cups were used. Today, the instrument is played in North and South Indian music. Accompanying instruments in South India are a violin and the double drum drum mridangam. A well-known Jaltarang player of the North Indian classical music is Milind Tulankar, a South Indian player is Anayampatti S. Ganesan.

A similarly arranged semi-circular percussion instrument is tabar tarang, which belongs to the membraneophones. The xylophone kashta-tarang is much less frequent than the jalarang in India. Edit source text Single-level Edit source text Weblinks Edit sourcetext Commons: Jaltarang - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

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