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Pungi
The snake charmers of India and Pakistan have this wind instrument called Pungi , for making snakes dance to their tunes, which is made of seasoned guard varieties, blown through the mouth of the player, air coming out of it making flute like sound, to be continued without pause, still played by them in the streets, carrying a snake or two along with.
Pungi comes with variations in nomenclature as Been or Bin ,Tumbi, Nagasar, SpurerBansi in the northern part of India, while the same instrument is referred as Mahudi, Pungi, PambaattiKuzhal in the south, mostly held by snake charmers to entertain people, said to have been developed initially to go with the folk music of India.
Carnatic musicians and Bharata Natyam experts in Tamilnadu, make it a point to include a number in their performances bringing Pungi tunes, calling it Magudi or Paampatti natyam.
Origin ofPungi
Pungi is basically a snake charmer’s bread winning equipment today, however, its origin comes from the genre of folk music instruments, which was popular in Badagutittu before fifty years approximately, often used during religious occasions as Nagaswaram in the south with a still longer shape and accompaniment of a drum instrument, by talented musicians.
Design
Pungi is made out of dried bottle guard, specially seasoned for the purpose, with a small calabash to store or hold the air blown in, to be released through two reed pipes fitted to the bottom of the guard, called Jivala, one to make constant drone sound and the other to play melody, while the top end is fitted with a tube through which the Pungi player blows air through his mouth, with his bulbycheeks collecting air from his breath, bringing out a shriek melody holding the audience spell bound, presumably the snake too, the drone and melody given without a pause for aesthetic reasons, although in recent times, metallic tubes are inserted in the calabash part of Pungi.
Playing Positions
When a snake charmer plays Pungi in front of a trained snake which he brings in a special round basket releasing it when he plays the instrument, sits with both his foot on the ground, his body not touching the ground, playing the music by circular breathing, however bringing out the tunes in line with traditional music forms, even Carnatic musicians doing vocal concerts or performance through other instruments like flute, render numbers based on Pungi form of music.
Beliefs
Playing pungi is to charm the snakes, although there are theories that Snakes do not have hearing faculty, while this music is rendered to give religious fervour, while its counterpart Nagaswaram, is a sacred instrument, played in temples and on auspicious occasions including wedding ceremonies, special kind of continuous blowing and quick drumming at the time of climax part of ceremonies.
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