Why In News?
The Geographical Indications Registry under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has granted the Geographical Indication (GI) Tag to Mandar.
What is Mandar?
Traditional Folk Musical Instrument: An ancient two-sided percussion drum (classified as an Avanaddha Vadya or membranophone) native to the Chota Nagpur plateau.
Jharkhand Tribal Culture: Serves as the cultural heartbeat of indigenous tribal communities, including the Santhal, Munda, Oraon, Ho, and Kharia, accompanying social gatherings, agrarian rites, and spiritual assemblies.
Folk Music and Dance: Centerpiece for traditional tribal dance forms such as Jhumair, Paika, Domkach, and Chhau, and central to harvest and spring festivals like Sarhul, Karma, Sohrai, and Mage Parab.
Indigenous Craftsmanship: Handcrafted using specialized ancestral knowledge handed down across generations, requiring intricate balancing of shell acoustics, hide tensioning, and natural tuning pastes.
Distinctive Sound: Emits a deep, resonant, and earthy acoustic timbre capable of carrying rhythms over vast forest terrains and open village akharas.
What Makes Mandar Unique?
Locally Sourced Red Clay: Unlike conventional wooden percussion drums, the hollow barrel-shaped body of the authentic Jharkhand Mandar is sculpted from locally sourced, alluvial red and black clays fired using indigenous kilns to achieve optimal acoustic resonance.
Traditional Manufacturing Techniques: Fired clay shell is carefully covered and bound with cured animal parchment (goat and cattle hides) secured using hand-twisted leather braiding (chaddar or badhi) running across the body.
Indigenous Craft Skills: Involves a delicate balance between unequal drumhead diameters; the left head (bass) is broader, while the right head (treble) is narrower, each tuned to complementary pitch intervals.
Acoustic Tuning Paste: Treble drum face is treated with a specialized black circular tuning paste (locally known as Kharan or Syahi), traditionally concocted from iron slag, cooked rice, and herbal extracts to create sustained acoustic harmonics.
Cultural Association: Revered as a sacred socio-cultural artifact; in tribal belief systems, playing the Mandar is an invocation of ancestral spirits and an expression of community harmony.