To the beat of drums...

We belong to a nation with a rich culture and heritage. The creations of our ancestors are simply amazing. In the Heritage Splendour page, we brought you a lot of information on our ancient architecture. Today, we tell you about our traditional drums.

You must have seen these drums on various occasions. At avurudu ceremonies, we use bench drums or thammattam: some of the other drums are used at the Dalada Maligawa as well. Ancient Sri Lanka had 33 varieties of drums, but today, most of them are confined to names and only around ten varieties can be found. Pujawaliya, Thupawansaya, and Dalada Siritha carry descriptions of these drums.

The drums that remain today are Geta Bera (bera is Sinhala for drum), Yak Bera, Davula, Thammattama, Udakkiya, Dakkiya, Bummadiya, Hand Rabana, Bench Rabana and Dandu Beraya. The history of our drums is believed to go back 2,500 years. Drums, which were originally used for pleasure, and later for rituals, came to be used at Buddhist temples during the many ceremonies.

At a later stage, drums were also used as a means of communication. The Davula, Thammattama and Bench Rabana have an important place in matters of communication. Some of these uses were: Ana Bera - to inform the people about orders from the King, Vada Bera - drums played when a criminal is taken for beheading, Mala Bera - drums used in a funeral procession and Rana Bera - drums used by the army when going out to meet the enemy.

The Geta Bera is the main drum used to accompany dances in the Kandyan or Hill Country tradition and is also known as the wedding drum. This is indispensable for Kandyan dances. This drum is double-headed, barrel-shaped and turned out of Ehela, Kohomba or Kos wood.

The drum tapers(becomes gradually thinner towards the ends); on the right side, the opening is covered with the skin of a monkey, while the opening on the left side is covered with a cattle skin. The strings that are used to tighten the sides are from a deerskin. This drum is played by hand.

The Yak Bera is referred to by many names, among which are Ruhunu Bera, Devol Bera and Ghoskaya. This drum normally accompanies dances from the low country, especially mask (devil) dancing connected with rituals and the Kolam folk plays. The drum is turned out of wood from the Kohomba, Ehela, Kitul or Milla trees. This is a cylindrical drum, fairly long and is played on both sides with hands. The openings on the two sides of the drum are covered with the stomach lining of a cow.

The strings used to tighten the sides are from cattle skin. The Davula is used in most Buddhist ceremonies all over the island. This drum is from Sabaragamuwa and was used as a companion drum in the past, to keep strict time with the beat. This is cylindrical, but much shorter than the Yak Bera. An important feature of this drum is that one side is played with the hand while the other side is played with a stick. The sides are covered with cattle skin and the tightening is done with a string made especially for the purpose.

The Thammattama is also referred to as the Twin Drum. This drum is played with two sticks. The two drums are of different sizes and while the right one produces a louder sound, the left one produces a looser sound. Only the topside of this drum is covered, either with the skin of a cow or a buffalo. The wood used is Kos, Kohomba or Milla. The special sticks used to play the drums come from a creeper known as Kirindi.

This is not all about drums. At the beginning of this article, we told you that there are ten varieties of drums. We'll feature them all in a future Heritage Splendour page. So keep reading!

Compiled by Janani Amarasekara