Madals

Madals are a rhythm-keeping drum for folk songs in Nepal as well as north India. They can be made of either wood or clay. Both heads are played, holding the madal drum horizontally. The madal averages two feet in length and six inches in diameter. The skin is similar to the skin of tablas. Black dots made of iron filings, flour and egg are burned on the skins in the center, giving the skin weight that causes the tone to reverberate like a low pitched bell. Also like tablas, the skins are stretched through the tuning wedges in the leather thongs. Madals are usually accompanied by a hollow head instrument called a Sarangi (different from the Indian Sarangi that has a hollow leather-covered head upon which the string bridge rests).