Hyderabad: We mostly talk about raising a storm in a tea-cup. How about conjuring up a ripple of rhythm in water! Did you hear a chime of water-wave or to be precise, a Jaltarang?
Well, it is an Indian classical water-instrument or jalyantra, producing some tinkling melodic music and bracketed within a percussion section. The proponents and patrons of this ear-pleasing, traditional gadget may describe its generated tunes as a ring of heavenly bliss but jalatarangam is no newly introduced member to the family of music. Rather its conventional presence has been there in the millennia-long cauldron of music.
Regaling the listeners over centuries with an array of 14-24 ceramic or metal bowls tuned with water, Jaltarang always touches a chord in the heart whenever played anywhere anytime. It immediately leaves a deep impact on the mind, the moment it is heard. The bowls are played by striking their rims either with cane, teak wood or bamboo sticks or wooden mallets, one held in each hand.
The round porcelain bowls are placed in a semi-circular arrangement around the player. The sound can be created or modified with the aid of water, depending on its quantity in the containers. Noticeably, the crystalline sound decreases with the increase in the amount of water.
Among a handful Indian jaltarang artistes, Milind Tulankar is a brilliantly talented musician who has been dauntlessly pursuing the craft since childhood and has adopted the instrument as his main pillar of presentation for his lengthy classical concerts as a solo performer. “I’ve also rendered yugalbandi recitals with the flute, sitar, violin, shehnai, classical vocals and Kathak dance,” he informs.
“Earlier brass bowls were in use. The bowls vary in size as well as thickness. Ranging from six to two inches, the former is suitable for the big ones to determine the notes at a heavier base, while the latter denotes a shrill high-pitched scale. Thus the volume of the sound differs from a blunt sound to a sharp one,” he explains in detail.
