South Asian Drumming beyond Tala: The Problem with “Meter” in Buddhist Sri Lanka

Abstract

In two conjoined articles, I argue that Sri Lanka—long passed over in ethnomusicology classes as one proceeds from India to Indonesia or vice-versa—is worthy of gaining a strong foothold in our field. This is due in part to the unique approach to rhythm and meter found in the rituals of a caste called the Beravā, members of the island’s Sinhala Buddhist ethnic majority. The genre’s rhythms are generated by drum syllables (aksaras) of long and short duration (guru and laghu) set in lines of drum poetry (padas). Sometimes the drumming resembles unmetered speech; other times, a pulse or beat cycle sounds present. However, there is no word for “meter” or “beat cycle” in the tradition (the pan-South Asian term tala is not used). In any given padaya (the singular), several aksaras will not match up with a beat, its seeming subdivisions, or the pulse. Even when a seemingly straightforward beat cycle is performed, it may be stretched to match the duration of the drum word. All this gives Sinhala drumming a unique feel: to outsiders, many rhythms appear uncountable. Sri Lankan musicologists have long been aware of the genre’s metric ambiguity, but they are not in agreement on how to understand it. In the first of my two articles, I consider the “problem” of Sinhala meter set in an introduction to Sinhala Buddhist ritual, a discussion of the relationship between music and Theravada Buddhism, and a history of Sinhala drumming—a long prologue that is warranted, I suggest, because of the lack of studies of Sri Lanka in ethnomusicology and the prevalence of misunderstandings in the literature on the role of music in Theravada Buddhism.

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