The Making of the Mridangam

T M Krishna has written an important book. It offers a detailed des­cription on the making of the mridangam while explicitly foregrounding the question of caste in Carnatic music. Although it does not follow the usual aca­demic protocols of writing, it is a book that contributes to academic kno­wledge. While it is also not an ethnographic account in the strict sense of what anthropologists would do when they study communities, it is nevertheless important for such studies. And through it all, it evokes a sense of how caste is practised in the everyday and how it gets sustained in the world of classical music.

Mridangam Makers vs Performers