Shankar Krishnan
Kanjira
- Bengaluru - Karnataka
Shankar Krishnan
A percussionist rooted in the Carnatic tradition, Shankar began with the mridangam before the corporate world intervened. Returning to his first love, he has since performed with Poco-a-Poco and other fusion ensembles — bringing a natural instinct for blending South Indian rhythm with contemporary electronic and cinematic production.
Earns a royalty on every sale of this pack
01 — The Pack
Kanjira Sample Pack
Carnatic Kanjira
CarnaticSouth IndiaPercussionKanjiraSouth Indian
About this instrument
The kanjira is a small South Indian frame drum — deceptively simple to look at, extraordinarily difficult to play. Brought into the Carnatic classical tradition in the 1880s by Manpoondia Pillai, it is built from a single piece of jackfruit wood and a goatskin head, with a single pair of metal jingles on the frame. In a Carnatic ensemble it plays a supporting role to the mridangam — but in a production context, it is something else entirely: a crisp, jingly, hand-held percussion instrument with a tonal range no drum machine can replicate.
02 — Listen First
03 — What You're Getting
Open Hits
The full resonant strike on the drum head — the kanjira's primary voice. Bright, present, and cutting. Drop one anywhere you'd reach for a tambourine, and it will hit harder and sound more alive.
Muted Hits
Palm-dampened strikes that kill the sustain and leave just the attack. The kanjira's ghost note. Use these to build polyrhythm layers or add texture between your main hits without cluttering the mix.
Finger Taps
Light, delicate articulations from individual fingers — the kanjira's softest voice. Works as a hi-hat replacement, a subtle groove texture, or the high end of a layered percussion stack.
Jingle Shakes
The metal jingles on the frame, isolated. Shaken, rolled, and accented — these are the kanjira sounds most producers have never heard on their own. Use them as a shaker replacement or a percussive top-end layer with genuine character.
Loops
Full-performance loops in Carnatic rhythmic styles at 85, 100, 120, and 140 BPM — played the way the kanjira is actually played in a classical context, then delivered tempo-matched and ready to drop into any DAW.
Format
24-BIT WAV
Sample Rate
96kHz
BPM Range
85 – 140
Recorded
Bengaluru, 2026
Licence
Royalty-Free
₹1,500.00
One-time purchase. Yours forever.A portion of every sale returns to Shankar Krishnan.
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Artist Credited
04 — What Makes This Different
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Named credit on this page, permanently. Shankar's name, tradition, and city are here forever. Every producer who downloads this knows who played.
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Revenue flows back to the artist. Not a one-time buyout. Every time this pack sells — in London, Lagos, or Los Angeles — Shankar earns from it.
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The tradition is documented. Carnatic lineage, city, session date — part of TISP's living catalog of Indian sonic traditions.
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No subscription required. One purchase. Lifetime ownership. No platform can take these files away from you.