The AK-47 of Mrdangas

Raivata writes me:

Hmm I reckon you are right and copying a good synthetic design like that. It's a simple and proven design.

On the ahimsa note I reckon it's ok to use animal skin when it comes from pests like goats or possums (pests in NZ anyway). Allowing them to live is simply causing violence to the other life forms they harm. Perhaps you could train up some of the local boys as Kshatriyas and send them out there to bring home a few skins. Good for the environment, good for the sankirtana yajna and a practical step for introducing varnashram.

Ahimsa aside, I am tending to the use of synthetic heads. I used my Balaram mrdanga in the Andes, in the jungle, and in the desert while I was in South America. Sometimes in the same week. You can't do that kind of thing with an animal skin head drum.

I want this drum to be the "AK-47" of mrdangas. Here are the characteristics of the AK-47 that I want it to share:

• Built using large, crude parts - AK-47's are easily maintained even by peasants. Local gunsmiths are able to produce replacement parts using artisanry. This mrdanga should have parts that are easy to replace using standard parts or replacement parts that people can make.
• Strong and durable - AK-47's are legendary for their ability to sustain punishment and neglect and keep firing. They aren't the most accurate of weapons, but they make up for this with volume of sustained firepower over the lifetime of the weapon. My Balaram mrdanga has gone through aircraft cargo holds, bus lockers, and numerous trips in the boot of the car. This is an argument against clay bodies. My Balaram mrdanga may not sound as good as a bonafide Bengali clay mrdanga, but it has outlasted fifty of them in its service lifetime.
• Coming off a factory line at the rate of 180,000 per day - if you don't have a plan to make thousands of mrdangas, you don't really have a plan for making thousands of devotees. This is an argument in favor of using standard pre-fabricated parts (such as Remo heads), and industrial production materials and existing production lines (the logic of the snake and the mousehole)
• On the national flag of a country - the AK-47 played such a crucial role in the liberation of Mozambique that they put it on the national flag. This mrdanga will play such a crucial role in the liberation of modern nations that it will feature on the national flag of several nations.

No one goes into war without a serious plan for industrial production of armaments. It's time to tool national industries for the sankirtan-yajna. It's time to beat our AK-47s into mrdangas, and wage a surgical war on the diseased mentality which is ravaging our communities worldwide.

The first phase is guerilla warfare, the second phase total war.

Param vijayate sri krishna sankirtanam!
Total victory of the congregational chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord!