mattannoor sankarankuty

mattannoor sankarankutty (M. P. Sankara Marar) is an Indian percussionist who plays the chenda (a traditional Kerala drum), Thayambaka, Panchari melam, and Panchavadyam. He was born in Mattanur, near Thalassery, in the Kannur district of Kerala. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2009 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2012.

Mattannoor Sankarankutty's first guru was his father Kunjikrishnan Marar. Having learned the first lessons from his father, little Sankaran started playing chenda by the age of seven. Sankarankutty's talents were first recognized by one of his cousins, who took him to Gandhi Sevasadanam, Peroor, for taking lessons in Kathakali chenda.

There he underwent rigorous training in thayambaka and Kathakali chenda under Pallassana Chandramannadiar and Sadanam Vasudevan. The former helped him imbibe the quintessence of tradition, while the latter kindled in him a spirit for experimenting. But very few know the fact that he has also been trained in edakka under Pattarath Sankara Marar at the Thiruvambadi Temple in Thrissur. When he stepped out of Sadanam, Sankarankutty had become an expert in almost all the temple music rituals like sopanasangeetam (a form of Indian classical music that developed in the temples of Kerala).