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Dramyen

(Damyan, Dranyen, Dramyin, Tungana)

by David Courtney working tools

damyan
Dramyen (Bhattacharya 1999)

The dramyen is a folk rabab found in most of the Himalayan region.  The num­ber of strings varies from place to place, but 4, 5, 6, or 7 seems to be com­mon.  The names also vary from region to region, where lo­cal versions may be called Damyan, Dramyen, Dranyen, Dramyin (curiously enough some­times spelled as sgrna-snyan), or Tungana.  Sizes too may vary, the Nepali Tungana tends to be smaller than the Tibetan Dramyen.  Manuscripts from the Mogul period indicate that at one time, this form of rabab was very com­mon in nor­thern India, how­ever today it is confined to the Himalayan regions.

damyan
Dramyen in old Moghul painting
THESE BOOKS MAY NOT BE FOR YOU
A superficial exposure to music is acceptable to most people; but there is an elite for whom this is not enough. If you have attained certain social and intellectual level, Elementary North Indian Vocal (Vol 1-2) may be for you.

This has compositions, theory, history, and other topics. All exercises and compositions have audio material which may be streamed over the internet for free.
Are you really ready to step up to the next level? Check your local Amazon.

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Other Sites of Interest

India : North Indian folk music

Indian folk music

Indian Folk-Music

Bharatiya Sangeet Vadya (Review)

Catalogue of Indian Musical Instruments

Fractal dimension analysis of audio signals for Indian musical instrument recognition

Natural synthesis of North Indian musical instruments

Recognition of Indian Musical Instruments with Multi-Classifier Fusion

The Tagore collection of Indian musical instruments

Improvement of Audio Feature Extraction Techniques in Traditional Indian Musical Instrument

East Indians musical instruments

Yantra kosha; or, A Treasury of the Musical Instruments of Ancient and of Modern India, and of Various Other Countries