The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan c11.222

c11.222

The shells are of copper, brass, or sheet-iron, rivetted together; the heads, made of skin, are strained upon hoops of metal, and stretched by ropes or leather thongs passing round the underside of the shell. The usual size of these drums is from 2½ to 3 feet in diameter. They are beaten with two curved sticks. In the Râmáyana, Mahambhárata, and some of the purânas, this instrument is called Dundubhi.