Ankle rattles
Date1850-1875 ca.
Place MadeRajasthan, India, Asia
Serial No.none
SignednoneDescriptionMade of cast bronze with four metal pellets inside each rattle. Worn around the ankles to articulate dance steps and heighten rhythmic intensity. Symbolic of the sacredness of dance and music, as well as the dancing profession. Often, depictions of Shiva as Nataraja (Lord of the Dance) include ankle rattles like these.
The typical ankle bells worn by dancers are a set of crotal bells attached to a strip of cloth or other material tied around the ankle. A modification of this principle is to use a hollow ring. The ring may be completely closed or slit on one side with a few pellets put into it.
DimensionsDiameter of tubing: ca. 20 mm
Diameter of anklet: 134 mm
Outer circumference of anklet: 425 mm
Width of slit: ca. 5 mm
Diameter of beads: ca. 12.5 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1977 from H. M. Lissauer, Melbourne, Australia.
Published ReferencesThomas E. Cross, Instruments of Burma, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Tibet, Shrine to Music Catalog Vol. II (1982), p. 4
Thomas E. Cross, Instruments of Burma, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Tibet in the
Collections of the Shrine to Music Museum, MM Thesis, University of South Dakota,
1983, p. 8, plate I.
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 29.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1977
Object number02326
On View
Not on view
1850 ca.
1900 ca.
1880-1899 ca.
1900-1925 ca.
1875-1900 ca.
