" The Theory and Practice of Mridanga", written by Late Sri. Dharmala Rama Murthy, is a translation of the Telugu book "Mridanga Tatwam, a much acclaimed================
book and winner of the national Sangeeth Nataka Academy award. This book is written specifically to help learn Mridangam even with out a teacher. This book
is also useful to the performing artistes in Vocal, Violin, Veena etc. for its
extensive treatment of muktayees and pallavis. A notation has been developed in
this book to better illustrate muktayee lessons in English language. This book
has been divided into five sections whose contents are as below.
Section I: (Theory) The theory of Tala, seven principal of Talas. Angas, Beats
for 35 Talas, Tala Dasa Pranas (10 elements of Talas) - Explained in detail with vivid examples.
Section II: (Theory) The design and construction of Mridangam - The various steps involved in teh construction of Mridangam are illustrated along with photos.
Section III(Practice): Various finger positions that are used in playing Mridangam are explained clearly with the help of photos. Detail lessons are devised to take the student thro' the learning process from basic levels (Primary series) to higher levels (Mohara, Muktayee). This also includes lessons in 35 Talas.
Section IV (Practice): A rich variety of muktayees are presented that includes
Trikaala, Shatkaala, Chaturasra, Trisra, Mishra, Khanda, and Sankeerna Gathis.
This section will be useful not only to mridangists bust also to students and performers in other disciplines of Carnatic music.
Section V (Practice): Sabda pallavis are discussed along with the associated Mridangam accompaniment in this chapter along with examples.
This book received great appreciation from many stalwarts including Sri Palghat
Mani Iyer, Sri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Sri Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna,
Sri P. Samba Murthy, to name a few.
Following is the appreciation given by Sri Mani Iyer on the original Telugu version, Mridanga Tatwam in verbatim.
"Though I don't know Telugu, I could go through the substance of the book "Mrudanga Tatwam" to a certain extent, written by Shri Dharmala Rama Murthy with help of one who has a knowledge of Telugu and Tamil. As far as I could go
through the book, I find it quite excellent. In this book the art of calculation has been presented in an easy and short-cut manner, i.e., things are which are ordinarily learnt after a lot of experience can be learnt much more easily by studying this book. From the beginning of the first lesson, "Mohara" and "Muktayee" for all the five Jathis and other Talams, are all written separately in a distinctive manner. It is impossible to write such a book with out stupendous effort. This book will be extremely useful to those who practise "Mridangam" and will be very useful in colleges also. "
This is a Calico bound edition, comprising of 312 pages and is priced at $20. Late Sri Dharmala Rama Murthy's other music publications:
Mridanga Tatwam (Telugu) : The original version in Telugu. Price: $20 Muktayee Sutra Bhashyam (Telugu): Book for professional musicians that discusses easy methods of
calculating muktayees. Price $20.
If anyone is interested in any of these books, please send mail to rmdha...@hotmail.com
- Ram
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