DescriptionTechnical description: Two wire strings. Small coconut resonator with diameter of 10cm. Wooden bridge on resonator. Hollow bamboo neck (30 cm). Associated arched wood stick bow with plastic ‘horsehair’ strings. Likely a tourist instrument.
Performance technique: The ordinary ravenatha is made with two strings: the first of horsehair and the second of plaited metal, usually tuned an octave apart. Holding the instrument against the chest with the left hand, the performer stops the first string with the fingers of the left hand. The bow, which usually has jingling pellet bells attached, is drawn across the strings. It is used by itinerant mendicants to accompany their singing of devotional songs. The larger, more complex ravenatha is played by the bhopa (religious singers) to accompany their own singing.
Historical sources and dispersal: Used in the Rajasthan and Gujarat states of northwest India. Identified by Sachs as a ravanahasta, as shown in Tamil and Telegu 19th-century picture books. Part of a family of fiddles that appear to be associated with bardic traditions or mendicants. Similar chordophones mentioned in potentially first-millennium Sanskrit texts. 16th-century document recording the administration of the Mughal Empire records the shell of a similar instrument, the ghichak of India, as made of coconut. However, the relationship of the ravenatha to the ghichak and variety of similarly-constructed spike fiddles from Middle East and China is unknown. |