Kanjira

Small 6-7 inch tambourine used in South Indian classical music. This drum has a lizard skin head with a single pair of jingles. The playing technique involves splitting the playing hand into two surfaces to achieve fast repetitions of a single sound. The type of lizard used to make this drum has been hunted to near extinction, so these drums are getting more and more difficult to find.

Also pictured here is a Cooperman Drums synthetic kanjira, which they call hadjira. This drum has a synthetic head, tuning hardware, extra jingle slots and removable jingle pins.

Visit the South Indian Percussionist Page for more on kanjira.