Shashank Giri

Mrudanga accompaniment is complete different when compared to tabla accompayment. Let me just put is very briefly, in tabla accompayment the tablist plays plain theka (taal) without much improvisation while playing with a vocalist and does show a little more than that while accompanying a instrumentalist. But he does show his skills when the lead artist sings/plays the main composition in repetitive loops. The tablist plays different kaidas in this span of time and comes to the sum/sama and displays his/her talent. When it comes to Mrudanga, the accompanying artists does improvise as and how the lead artists improvise. And also the Mrudanga artist trys to follow the lead artist in various ways. Also displays the percussion related calculations in a very elaborate manner when the lead artist gives scope for the percussion artists to perform the percussive calculations. This is commonly referred to as tani avartana.