The art and playing of Mridang/Pakhawaj/Mardala - the double-sided North Indian drum - is my love, my joy, my passion, my spiritual practice, my grounding, my sanity-medicine, my friend and ally.
I am the musician, Phil Hollenbeck.
I have been a student of the art for 45 years. I live in USA, my teachers are in India, and that reality has shaped my development and progress, and is one of the reasons I remain a lifetime student of the art and its performance practice.

I am creating this page and site for the following purposes:

~To make a dedicated place for other North Indian musicians and dancers, as well as students and artists of other traditions, to view my background, to easily contact me for collaboration, or for assistance and instruction in the way of guru-shishya parampara
~To provide information on the art and practice, and on the gharana traditions and gurus under whom I have trained
~To honor and celebrate the pakhawaj and mardala traditions by providing information on, and linking to, some of the great contemporary players of these instruments
~To feature various recordings and videos of pakhawaj/mardala masters, and make available links to rare old samples of masters of past generations
~To be an online place open to contributions of any kind from other pakhawajis, artists, rasikas, and collectors - including comments, dialogue, and suggestions


Gurus/Teachers

PANDIT AMARNATH MISHRA



















RAJA CHHATRAPATI SINGH



















                                                                  PANDIT TRIBHUAN UPADHYAY



PT. PANNALAL UPADHYAY













PADMA CHARAN DEHURY













SACHIDANANDA DAS

3 comments:

  1. I am happy to share more information regarding Mardala which you can add to your website

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardala
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhaneswar_Swain
    https://www.facebook.com/Vadyavani/
    https://www.facebook.com/Mardalachronicle
    https://youtube.com/c/VadyaVaniGurukul
    https://www.instagram.com/the_mardala_chronicle/


    Bibhuti Bhusan Champati- Mardala Player, M. Phil in Botany
    +91 9439614399

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  2. Hi, I'm trying to learn the difference between pakhvaj and Mardala, I want to buy one to play for Odissi dance. Is Mardala same but without needing to add attar to bass or is there more difference?

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