NAGARA DHOL
THE Nagara (sometimes called Bheri), or Nakkera, is a large kettledrum,
much employed in temples.
The shells are of copper, brass, or sheet-iron, rivetted together; the
heads, made of skin, are strained upon hoops of metal, and stretched by ropes or
leather thongs passing round the underside of the shell. The usual size of these
drums is from 2 1/2 to 3 feet in diameter. They are beaten with two curved sticks.
In the Ramayana, Mahambharata, and some of the puranas, this instrument is
called Dundubhi.
The Maha-nagara, or Nahabet, is a very similar kettledrum, of larger size,
employed in bands attached to the palaces of Mahomedan nobles in the Deccan
and Upper India. These instruments are sometimes made as much as five feet
in diameter.
