Buying and transporting a mridangam from india

[USrasika]

Hello all. Fairly new on this board. I hope this is the correct place to post this question. I am thinking of buying a mridangam in india. What is the best way of transporting it back via plane to the US? Are there hard cases in India you can buy so that it can be checked in as luggage? How do all of the artists from India transport their instruments worldwide? Also, any recommendations on music shops in Hyderabad/Secundrabad for buying a mridangam? Thanks so much for your help! Hari.

[Nick H]

I cannot help you with the pressent day situation, costs, etc of mridangam buying, but I have taken quite a few back to UK in years past.

The body of mridangam is strong: you do not need a hard case to protect it. It is fine to check it in the standard mridangam bag.

You need to protect the heads. The standard way of doing this is to buy metal plates of the appropriate size for each end. I recommend putting something soft between the head and the plate, and then packing out the bag each end with further padding.

[mridhangam]

Now a good quality trolley bags are available for mridangam which you can buy at a reasonably low cost of less than Rs.1000/- from a musical shop which protects both the ends of the mridangam quite reasonably in these days of rough handling of any luggage. I have been using this trolley bag for quite sometime since one end is having the wheel portion which has a strong metal base and the other end has the padding already.

Mannarkoil J Balaji

[Nick H]

Ah yes! I have seen and admired Balaji's on-wheel mridangam system

[veeyens3]

I have seen visiting Vidwans bringing two Mridangams in a special zippered bag . which is accepted in U.S Airlines as a regular luggage