Plastic Fermit and Mrindagam - A reusable kneadable putty for the Left Face of Mrindagam

Feb. 3, 2012 - PRLog -- The classical drum of South Indian music is the mridangam. This is an indispensable accompaniment in the concerts of both the vocal and instrumental music in south India. It is also known by the name of maddal or maddalam.

The body of the mridangam is scooped out of a single block of wood. Jackwood or redwood is the ideal choice of mridangam makers, but the wood of morogosa tree or the core of the coconut tree and the palm tree is also used for this purpose. It is shaped like a barrel whose right head is a little smaller than the left. The instrument is one-and-a-half or two feet in length and its diameter is twenty-five to thirty centimetres. The making of the parchment is a highly developed skill. The right head of the drum consists of three concentric layers of the skin, the innermost being concealed from view, which is a complete skin, and two layers at the periphery. Out of these three the complete one is made of cow-hide with calf-skin used for the outer ring and sheep skin for the inner ring.

There is another version of the arrangement of the skin, i.e. the interior is made of calf skin, the middle layer is of goat skin and the outer thick layer is made from cow skin.

The left head consists of only two rings. The outer one is made of buffalo skin and the inner one is of sheep/goat skin. Both the parchments are stretched and kept intact by means of a plait called chattai or pinnal made of twisted leather straps. These two plaits are connected with the leather braces of buffalo/cow skin. These can be tightened or loosened to keep the instrument in tune. At times small pieces of wood are also put in between these braces, in order to switch over to the desired pitch of the instrument. The right head of the drum is loaded with a permanent fixture of black paste. The circular layer, called 'soru', is a composition of manganese dust, boiled rice and tamarind juice or a composition of fine iron fillings and boiled rice. Occasionally, a stone, called kittan, is powdered and mixed with rice in proper proportion. This black paste is applied on the inner skin in small grains and finely rubbed over for hardening with the polished surface of a hard stone. The paste is thickest in the centre and thins out towards the edges. It is this black paste which gives the fine characteristic tone to the mridangam.

The left face is not loaded with black paste like the right face, but at the commencement of a concert, a paste of soojee (fine flour) and boiled rice mixed with water and ashes is temporarily fixed on to the centre of right head. The quantity of this paste is so adjusted that the note given by the left head is exactly an octave or a fourth below the note tuned at the right side.

Now instead of using Sooji, Play-doh, etc, get introduced to Fermit Plastic from Germany. Brought to India specifically for the mridangam players.

Plastic Fermit has the following advantages:
Permanently plastic
Ductile
Economical
Can be worked quickly
Does not become brittle
Good adhesion power
Storable indefinitely

The product is available in 250 grams tins and is priced at just Rs.450/- a tin including taxes.

# # #

Project Sales Corp imports and markets sealing compounds in India. It is the sole distributor for Fermit GmbH for their product range.