W hen I met this octogenarian past weekend at his house I realised that age is merely a number. Agile and energetic, he is ready to showcase his latest innovation, a mridangam made of glass, on December 17, 8.30 a.m., at the Vidya Bharathi Kalyana Mandapam as part of Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha’s December festival.
He summoned his disciple to place two glass mridangams on the mat spread out in the drawing room and demonstrated a few nadais on both the mridangams tuned to ‘D’ and ‘F’. He then played the conventional mridangam to show how both emanated similar sound texture. He appeared like an enthusiastic youngster waiting to show people his latest invention and get their acknowledgement.
His experiments with the fibreglass led him to create a fibreglass veena, which he gave to Veenai Pichumani Iyer. The easy-to-carry mridangam bag being used by the entire fraternity is his brain child. “I feel so happy to my fellow artists using it,” says the veteran.
It is this zest that has propelled him into the research of a glass mridangam but what is the advantage of glass over jackfruit wood?
“The felling of jackfruit trees can be avoided and glass can be recycled. Hence, the glass mridangam is eco-friendly. Cost estimate has not been made as it is just the beginning of an experiment. Sixty-five per cent of the glass core is silica and the other raw materials include dolomite, calcite and soda ash. Molten in a high temperature furnace the materials fuse into crystal clear toughened glass.
Sivaraman lauded the expertise of Santhanam of Saint Gobain and that of Ganesh and Karunakaran of Sakthi Glass, who helped him give shape to his dreams. He also acknowledged the efforts of Johnson, who regularly repairs his mridangam, for carefully covering the sides of the glass as done in a traditional mridangam. “It did look attractive but was also heavy weighing almost 18 kg. I am now working towards making it light-weight and easy to carry.”
How will a mridangam made of glass withstand the force with which a percussionist plays it? Sivaraman clarifies that deft handling and playing it in appropriate style would save the embarrassment of a broken mridangam during a concert.
Compressed glass is always strong and the concentric circles running through the body to an extent would mitigate the impact.
In certain countries, the mridangam is fumigated before it crosses the immigration. This process causes black patches on the mridangam and at times affects the nadham too.
In order to overcome this, Umayalpuram has simultaneously taken up a research on hide obtained from many parts of the country and is in the process of treating them by different methods so that the nadha is optimised and to avoid fumigation at airports.
The black patch, with its short life, has always bothered mridangam artists.
Sivaraman is trying to find eco-friendly materials that will ensure a longer life for the instrument. What actually amazes one is the veteran’s constant quest for a new idea.
“I thank my elders and gurus for guiding me in all my efforts,” says Sivaraman.
