Just got back from yoga.

Here’s a tip for general skin care, and for mrdanga playing in particular. (A mrdanga is a two-headed drum that can be played standing up and walking, and is popularly associated with nagar-sankirtan, or musical parades where the Holy Names of the Lord are chanted).

What we discovered in playing mrdanga for extended periods regularly is that you get blood blisters and cracked skin. We would use oil, wax, and lanolin to moisturize our hands every day in the morning.

You shouldn’t have bleeding hands playing mrdanga for more than a few weeks. If you regularly do, then you should probably either put in the regular playing needed to develop your conditioning to the level needed to play like that, or else tone it down a little. I don’t mind when someone who is sincerely working to develop to that level bleeds on the mrdanga, but when someone regularly does it (such as every major festival) I begin to wonder about their motives. Bleeding on the mrdanga is not cool. It’s unclean, it’s not good for the mrdanga heads, and it’s a sign that you actually don’t play much.

Callouses will develop that will stop the blood blisters. After some time they will become less noticeable. What causes the cracking of the skin along the lines is dehydration. The way to stop this from occurring is to moisturize your hands while you are playing. And… here it is… the best moisturizer is your own sweat.

Take a break every so often (you can easily do it in big kirtans with multiple mrdangas), and rub your hands over your forehead or your neck. Rub them together so that the sweat goes into them, especially your fingers and base of the fingers, and you’ll be able to play on for hours without get cracked skin. You also won’t get some messy thing like wax or oil on the drum (which will ruin the head).

It took me a while to figure this one out. I figured it out subconsciously at first, and after some time noticed what I was doing. It works.

So there you have it. I remember this right now because with 24 people in the Loft in a Queensland summer you sweat a lot, and I took advantage to transfer it to my knees which are dried out from kneeling and praying so much (ha ha ha! Actually I kneel at my desk to take a break from sitting at one all day, and that dries my knees out).