Khol / Mridanga Fibreglass
The khol is a double-headed drum from Bengal. It is also called mridanga and is used to accompany bhajans and kirtans. The clay body of traditional khols is extremely fragile - one false move and the instrument can break to pieces. Our sturdy fibreglass khols are a solution for this problem.
The small high-pitched head gives a clear bell-like sound and the big head a warm rolling bass. Due to the fibreglass body, the tone is less sharp if compared to clay khols. However, the fibreglass khol is practically indestructible and therefore well suited for travelling, rough handling and continuous playing. Skins and straps are made in the traditional way. It can be played standing hung around the neck, or sitting placed on the lap. Its differentiated finger technique allows for fascinatingly complex rhythms. However, it can also be played with the whole hands without special skills.
The high-pitched head has a diameter of only 9 to 10 cm which and therefore gives a very penetrating bell-like sound. The bass head has a diameter of 20 cm and is prepared with a special paste to get a deeper pitch. Both heads have two layers of rawhide on the rim just like the tabla heads. They are tightened with rawhide straps. Including carrying bag.
The name mridanga is derived from the sanskrit words "mrid" for "earth" or "clay" and "ang" for "body".
Our fibreglass khols are supplied by Paloma.
PALOMA is the international brand name for instruments made by Haribhau Vishwanath from Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Haribhau Vishwanath was founded in 1925 as a small repair business and developed into one of the leading Indian harmonium manufacturers in the course of decades. In addition, Haribhau Vishwanath makes shrutiboxes, santoors, swarmandals and some drums. Haribhau Vishwanath is also an active musical instrument trader and supplies us with some rarely demanded instruments where a direct purchase from the manufacturer is not profitable. Thanks to his good infrastructure and long experience with instrument manufacturing, trading and international shipping, Haribhau currently supplies all common harmonium models and many other instruments constantly in a high quality regarding workmanship. In addition, he excels through attractive innovations, like e.g. the harmonium Compactina or a particular silk-mat finish. Haribhau Vishwanath is a partner of India Instruments since 2005. Today the company is run by Ashish Diwane.
Measure: diameter 31 cm, length 58 cm, weight: 3 kg
Each instrument is individually hand-crafted and might differ from our description.