One Ghatam, many srutis: A new way to tune into every concert

CHENNAI: For a ghatam artiste, one concert can mean carrying several ghatams. Since a traditional ghatam cannot be tuned, the artiste may need a different one depending on the singer’s sruti. Each ghatam weighs around seven to eight kilograms and needs to be handled carefully, making it challenging to carry several from one concert to another.

It was this practical problem that led ghatam player N Guruprasad to develop One Ghatam, a wooden version that can be tuned to different srutis. The instrument weighs around three to four kilograms, almost half the weight of a traditional clay ghatam. Unlike the clay version, it can be adjusted to suit different pitches.

“The main reason for this innovation is that you can tune the instrument to any scale and any sruti. It is easily tuneable. The problem becomes noticeable when accompanying vocalists. While one singer may perform in C, another may sing in C sharp or even somewhere between two commonly used pitches. Since a clay ghatam has a fixed tone, the artiste has little choice but to use another instrument. With this instrument, you can tune it to whatever the singer needs,” he explains.

Guruprasad says some players have as many as 20 to 25 ghatams, so they are prepared for different concerts and singers. Carrying them, especially when travelling, is not easy. “This innovation would solve many of those problems,” he says.

The wooden instrument has another advantage. According to Guruprasad, it requires less force to play than the traditional clay pot. “You can use less power to play this ghatam than the power used for a normal clay ghatam,” he says.

Once he developed the instrument, Guruprasad took it to his guru, the legendary ghatam artiste Vikku Vinayakram. He also showed it to another of his gurus, V. Suresh. Fellow ghatam artistes Ghatam Karthik and Chandrasekara Sharma have also tried the new instrument. For Guruprasad, the idea is not to replace the traditional clay ghatam. Instead, he hopes it will give artistes another option, particularly those who travel frequently or perform in places where carrying a collection of instruments is difficult.

“Many ghatam players around the world do not have ghatams in every sruti. Because of that, some miss out on concerts when the right pitch is not available. I wanted to create something that would solve this problem,” he says. He also hopes the innovation will encourage more musicians to take up the instrument by making it easier to use and travel with

One Ghatam will be formally launched and demonstrated on August 19 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Mylapore. Guruprasad will present the instrument in a live demonstration alongside leading Carnatic musicians, showing how it can be tuned across different srutis while retaining the familiar sound and role of the ghatam in Carnatic music.