The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan c10.23

c10.23

The effect of a méla can hardly be called pleasing, unless to those whose chief delight is discordant noise. The air, such as it is, is generally drowned by the clanging of cymbals and the incessant drumming, which, added to the prolonged and shrill drone of the s'rutis, produce an effect considerably imposing. But, as Captain Willard pithily enough remarks,³ it is heard to advantage “from a distance.”