Ancient drum calls the faithful to prayer in Muthupettai mosque

For arsenic agelong arsenic they tin remember, residents of the coastal municipality of Muthupettai successful Tiruvarur territory person heard a chiseled booming drum bushed from the mosque adjoining the Sheikh Dawood Kamil Valiyulla Dargah, alerting them to the upcoming ‘azaan’ (call to prayer) 5 times a time astatine regular intervals from dawn to nightfall.

The dependable emanates from an past ‘nagara’, a kettle drum celebrated for its thunderous tone.

“Even though we usage a microphone to broadcast the azaan, we similar to usage the ‘nagara’ to fto the faithful cognize that it is clip to pray,” S.S. Bakar Ali Sahib, president and hereditary trustee of the Muthupettai dargah committee, told The Hindu.

The drum is kept successful a abstracted spot connected the premises, and operated with 2 specially carved woody sticks by the ‘mothinar’, who besides recites the ‘azaan’ successful the mosque. Its hollow circular brass basal is covered with cattle fell that is tightly stretched and secured to the edges with rope. A dense woody basal helps to support its stability.

During the fasting period of Ramzan, the ‘nagara’ is sounded doubly successful the morning, archetypal up of the pre-dawn ‘suhour’ repast to aftermath up people, and past earlier the Fajr prayer. “It is besides beaten doubly successful abbreviated intervals connected Fridays, to promote radical to stitchery for the day juma prayers,” said Mr. Bakar Ali. The cattle fell is replaced erstwhile each fewer years erstwhile it is damaged.

The drum’s sanction is drawn from the Arabic verb ‘naqqara’ (to beat), and is besides known successful northbound India arsenic the ‘nagaada’. The instrumentality is thought to person been introduced to India by Arab and Persian travellers and traders.

Its quality to nutrient a large sound made it an perfect instrumentality to rally troops connected the warfield. Over time, the ‘nagara’ recovered its mode into spiritual shrines, and became a portion of ritual performances successful temples and dargahs. Specially trained ‘nagara’ percussionists are sought aft for specified occasions.

“In Tamil Nadu, the ‘nagara’ was a communal fixture successful mosques until the 1980s for supplication alerts, but they became redundant aft large-scale electrification of these premises. The drums were besides utilized by the erstwhile princely kingdoms successful confederate India to marque large nationalist announcements. Very often, the larger ‘nagara’ would beryllium carried connected an elephant,” said J. Raja Mohamed, director, Centre for Islamic Tamil Cultural Research, affiliated to Jamal Mohamed College successful Tiruchi.

The Muthupettai mosque’s nagara is said to person been brought from the Chettinad portion adjacent Karaikudi, said Mr. Bakar Ali