Totaram Sharma is a famous player of which percussion instrument?

Explanation

Pandit Totaram Sharma is a well-known pakhawaj player of Hindustani classical music. He is known for his traditional style of playing and for accompanying dhrupad singers and instrumentalists in concerts.

Totaram Sharma has performed with many great dhrupad musicians and has also played solo pakhawaj recitals, which require great skill and knowledge of rhythm. He has trained students in the pakhawaj and has worked to keep this ancient drumming tradition alive at a time when the tabla has become far more common.

The pakhawaj is a barrel-shaped, double-headed drum of North India. It is one of the oldest drums of Hindustani music and is closely related to the mridangam of South India. Its body is usually made of wood, with leather heads on both ends. The right head has a black spot (syahi), and the left head is coated with wheat flour paste before playing, which gives it a deep bass sound. The pakhawaj is played horizontally, with both hands. It is the main accompanying instrument for dhrupad and dhamar, the oldest forms of Hindustani vocal music, and it is also used in Kathak, in temple music and in devotional singing. Its strokes and compositions are powerful and resonant, suited to the slow, grand style of dhrupad.

According to a popular tradition, the tabla developed from the pakhawaj, when the drum was split into two parts. The pakhawaj was the main drum of North Indian classical music before the rise of the tabla in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Other famous pakhawaj players include Pandit Bhawani Shankar, Raja Chhatrapati Singh, Pandit Ayodhya Prasad, Pandit Ramashish Pathak and Pandit Dalchand Sharma. The Nathdwara school of pakhawaj is one of the important traditions of the instrument.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Tabla is linked with Zakir Hussain and Kishan Maharaj.
• ✗Mridangam is the main drum of Carnatic music, linked with Palghat Mani Iyer.
• ✗Dholak is a folk drum used in folk and film music.