The mridangam, an earthier cousin of the tabla – a unique innovation, carefully crafted: hollowed jackfruit-wood trunk, taught hides, a retina of iron oxide. The touch of fingers and palms, invoking silken grooves, insistent hooves, quickfire speech, resonant echoes of the rhythms around us.

Venerated in Indian lore, carved on temple walls, played by the celestial bull, Nandi, while Shiva in the form of Nataraja danced the world into existence. An ancient instrument, alive today in South Indian classical music, accompanying voice, violin, flute, veena, mandolin, and dance. It has its own syllabic language, say it out loud: Thaka—Dhimmi—Thaka—Jonnu—Dhikku—Thaangu—Kita—Thaka!

Bringi reveled in artistry of the legends, Palani Subramania Pillai, Palghat Mani Iyer, Vellore Ramabhadran, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Trichy Sankaran. In a twist of irony, Bringi learned from his dad that according to a 15 th century Sanskrit thesaurus, the Amara, Bringi is a name for none other than Nandi, the mridangam-playing bull!

He dreamed of how the instrument could be transported to a new setting – contemporary global-roots music, at the junction of world, jazz, blues, classical, hip hop and folk.

Over the years, Bringi honed his vision and style, accompanying guitars, violin, saxes, flute, harp, piano, oud, Ethiopian krar, West African n’goni and other percussion instruments such as tabla, Persian Tonbak and Japanese Taiko drums.

He is deepening his practice with guidance from Bangalore-based maestro BC Manju, and is experimenting to integrate mridangam with cymbals, djembe, and drum kit.