are altogether 287 different varieties of Indian drums exhibited.
The Mridanga or Mardala is the most common and probably the most ancient of Indian drums. It is said to have been invented by Brahma to serve as an accompaniment to the dance of Siva, in honour of his victory over the three cities; and Ganesa, the son of Siva, is said to have been the first one to play upon it. The word mridanga or mardala means 'made of clay', and probably therefore its body was originally of mud. Large earthern pots are used even to-day by Indian drummers. They are struck upon the bottom and sometimes a piece of parchment is stretched across the mouth. It is quite a pleasing instrument. There is, however, to-day no clay in the com- position of the ordinary mridanga. The mridanga is a barrel-shaped drum about two feet long, with a girth of about three feet in the centre. The two ends have a diameter of about nine inches each. Slight variations from these dimensions may occur in different mridanga. The shape of the mridanga reminds one of two bottomless flower pots joined at the rims. The shell of the drum is now made of wood, and is slightly larger at one end than at the other. The two heads are covered with parchment, which is tightened or loosened by leather braces enclosing small cylindrical blocks of wood, which are either pushed nearer to or further from the head which is being tuned. As the strain on the braces is increased or decreased, so the parchment head is stretched or loosened, and the pitch raised or lowered as desired. On one of these two heads is worked a mixture of manganese dust, boiled rice and tamarind juice, in order to increase the pitch of the note. This appears as a black circle, slightly raised in the centre about one-eighth of an inch. It is a permanent fixture on the drum, and the bare parchment is only left for a very small width around it. The note of this head is Sa and it is played with the fingers of the right hand, which strike it either at the edge or in the centre. The other side of the mridanga is left bare, but on every occasion when it is used, a mixture of boiled rice, water and ashes is put in the centre. This helps to give the dull
