Mhadalem (

Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...

: म्हादळें) is a

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

n percussion instrument. It is a baked clay cylinder covered with

monitor lizard Monitor lizards are lizards in the genus ''Varanus,'' the only extant genus in the family Varanidae. They are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, and West African Nile monitor, one species is also found in south America as an invasive species. A ...

skin at both ends. The mhadalem is in danger of dying out and being lost as its use is declining. It has to some extent been replaced by the

pakhavaj The ''pakhavaj'' is a barrel-shaped, two-headed drum, originating from the Indian subcontinent, kendang of Maritime Southeast Asia and other South Asian double-headed drums. Its older forms were made with clay. It is the percussion instrumen ...

. Since the ''gar'' or monitor lizard whose skin is used as the membrane of the drum is endangered and cannot be hunted, goat skin is sometimes used instead as the membrane, as is happening with the

ghumot The ghumot (Bombay East Indians, East Indians: घुमट or ಘುಮೋಟ), gumot or ghumat is a membranophone instrument from Goa, India. ''Ghumat'' is a percussion instrument of earthen vessel having both sides open; on the bigger opening ...

References and Notes

Traditional Goan musical instruments Membranophones {{Membranophone-instrument-stub