Namita Waikar

large_NW_ADifferentKindofDrumbeat.png

medium_NW_ADifferentKindofDrumbeat.png

small_NW_ADifferentKindofDrumbeat.png

thumbnail_NW_ADifferentKindofDrumbeat.png

NW_ADifferentKindofDrumbeat.png

The mridangam is a barrel-shaped, double-headed drum with one head larger than the other, used in Carnatic (south Indian) music.
 Not often do you see women playing the
 
 mridangam
 
 , but at Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam in rural Tamil Nadu, two 14-year-old girls play it with ease and elan. A. Sangeetha takes the lead and A. Srimathi follows with equal skill.
 
 The Gurukulam is a residential school in Punjarasantangal village of Kanchipuram district. Here, students are trained in Kattaikkuttu, a rural theatre form practiced in the state, along with a regular school education up to Class 12. In addition to Kattaikkuttu singing, acting and make-up, all the students learn to play an instrument.

A different kind of drumbeat

ଏକ ଭିନ୍ନ ପ୍ରକାରର ଢୋଲ ଶବ୍ଦ

مختلف قسم کے طبلے کی تھاپ

இது ஒரு வித்தியாசமான தாள நடை

Kanchipuram

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


Let’s get you acquainted

Welcome to PARI

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

A different kind of drumbeat

Two young girls at Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam play the mridangam

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit