The kanjira, khanjira or ganjira, a South Indian frame drum, is an instrument of the tambourine family. It is used primarily in concerts of Carnatic music (South Indian classical music) as a supporting instrument for the mridangam. The kanjira have been used since 1880's, and was added to classical concerts during the 1930s.

Similar to the Western tambourine, it consists of a circular frame made of the wood of the jackfruit tree, between 7 and 9 inches in width and 2 to 4 inches in depth. It is covered on one side with a drumhead made of monitor lizard skin (specifically the Bengal monitor, Varanus bengalensis, now an endangered species in India), while the other side is left open. The frame has a single slit which contain three to four small metal discs—often old coins—that jingle when the kanjira is played.

The kanjira is a relatively difficult Indian drum to play, especially in South Indian Carnatic music, for reasons including the complexity of the percussion patterns used in Indian music. It is normally played with the palm and fingers of the right hand, while the left hand supports the drum. The fingertips of the left hand can be used to bend the pitch by applying pressure near the outer rim. It is not tuned to any particular pitch, unlike the mridangam or the ghatam.

Peter Robert Lockett is an English percussionist and recording artist. Lockett is known as a versatile and prolific percussionist, collaborating with many artists. He is well-versed in percussion traditions from music cultures around the world, including, Arabic, Japanese, Indian and Western.

Lockett grew up in Portsmouth, South East England in a non-musical family. He gained an interest in music at the age of 19 when he passed a drum shop one day and decided to book a lesson. Lockett found a career in music (especially in percussion) to be exhilarating, eventually moving to London two years later to pursue a career in the field.

He has recorded and/or performed with many artists including, Björk, Afro Celt Sound System, Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, The Verve, Amy Winehouse, Pet Shop Boys, Sinéad O' Connor, Nitin Sawhney, Zakir Hussain and A.R. Rahman amongst many others. He has also worked extensively in the film industry, playing on a number of Bond movies,Moulin Rouge!, The Insider, City of Angels, The Bone Collector and the Guy Ritchie movie Snatch.

Umayalpuram Kasiviswanatha Sivaraman (born December 17, 1935) is an Indian mridangam player. He was awarded with the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honor, on the occasion of the country's 61st Republic Day observance on January 26, 2010 and received Honorary Doctorate from University of Kerala in 2010.

Shri G. Harishankar, (India, June 10, 1958 – February 11, 2002) was an Indian kanjira player. the kanjira being a tambourine used in the Carnatic music of South India. To date, he is the only Kanjira player to be awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest national recognition given to performing artists.

Harishankar received his initial training under his father Govinda Rao. He later learnt under Palghat Mani Iyer and C S Murugabhoopathi. He was a staff artist of the All India Radio, Chennai. Some of his best performances in albums were with the Sruthilaya group along with Karaikudi R Mani on the Mridangam, T V Vasan on the Ghatam, Srirangam Kannan on the Morsing. He performed in several albums including Laya Chithra, Sruthilaya, Grand Finale. Both while accompanying songs, and while playing solo, he played with great control and speed in an amazing fashion. He is considered by many to be the greatest Kanjira performer to date. Multiple sources say he had albinism, though many photos show him with dyed-dark hair. Video footage shows him with pale skin and white eyebrows.

Karaikudi Mani (born as Ganapathy Subramanyam on September 11, 1945 in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, India) is an Indian percussionist, primarily adept in the mridangam.

Karaikudi Mani was born on September 11, 1945 at Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu. He is the son of Late Sri.T. Ramanatha Iyer and Smt. Pattammal. He stepped into Carnatic Music at the age of 3. Although he commenced with Vocal training, very soon he realised his special interest was in Percussion and switched over to the Mridangam.

His Gurus were Karaikudi Sri Rangu Iyengar, Sri T R Harihara Sharma and Sri K M Vaidyanathan. His first stage performance took place when he was 8 years old at Karaikudi. Thereafter he developed the Karakudi Mani Bhani (Style), which won the hearts of many young percussionists and others all over the World and has earned him the status of being a trend-setter in the field of Mridangam.^{[citation needed]}

“Master Mani” as he is now known^{[citation needed]}, was soon performing regularly. He was growing up in what is now hailed as the Golden era of music. It was the time when the Great father of Mridangam, Sri Palghat Mani Iyer was in his prime. Mani professes immense admiration for the veteran Mridangist. In his early days, Mani idolised the great Palghat Mani Iyer, and soon became noticed by the Mridangam giant himself. Mani proclaims one of his greatest accolades to be the instance when Sri Palghat Mani Iyer praised Mani in a public concert.