The Jal-Tarang One Of The Most Rarely Heard Instruments!

The Jal-Tarang One Of The Most Rarely Heard Instruments!

- Priyaanka Mathur

One of the oldest instruments in the world ‘Jal-tarang’ comes from ‘Jal’ meaning water, and ‘tarang’ that connotes to the "waves in water". Jal-tarang is an ancient Indian wave instrument which continues to play till today in the Indian classical music repertoire to produce both ‘Ragas’ and light melodies. Jal-tarang is a unique instrument in the sense that it is both a percussion, as well as a non-percussion instrument, used to play solo performances accompanied by Tabla or as an accompanying percussion instrument.

The instrument was developed in ancient India around the 17th century and finds its first mention in the music treatise Sangeet Parijaat. This medieval musical treatise categorizes this instrument under ‘Ghan-Vadya’(Idiophonic instrument) in Indian music terminology wherein the sound is produced by striking the surface of the instrument primarily to produce vibrations, without the use of strings or membranes.

It is said that Alexander, on his return from India to Macedonia, managed to take some Jal-tarang players with him. Vatsyayana's Kamasutra mentions about a certain water instrument called ‘Udakavadya’ which is assumed to be the Jal-tarang as he mentions playing on musical glasses filled with water is one of the 64 Arts and Science to be studied by a maiden.