any major percussion art in India, is largely a male domain, though of late it has a handful of women practitioners as well. Also, thayambaka is occasionally performed on the mizhavu, an instrument that provides support to koodiyattam and koothu performances, besides idakka and less common instruments like villu. Certain patterns of rhythmic rolls in the thayambaka have influenced the taniyavartanam, the 20-minute-or-so instrumental concert on Carnatic music concerts, where mridangam plays the lead role. Prominent schools Thayambaka, which predominantly developed in central Kerala, has two major schools—called Malamakkavu and Palakkad. The Malamakkavu school is known for its measured progression and grammatical purity, especially in the initial Pathikaalam stage. The Palakkad school revels in imagination and lays emphasis on an improvisation-filled Kooru besides a prolonged yet patterned irikida. It is another matter that thayambaka manifests itself with subtle changes in patterns and overall aesthetics in all the places it has developed over the years—from northern Travancore to the erstwhile provinces of Kochi and Kozhikode. Leading masters Thayambaka today has its masters ranging from veterans to youngsters. To name a few, they include kalamandalam prabhakara poduval (malamakkavu), Sadanam Vasudevan, Kalloor Ramankutty Marar, Pallassana Ponnukutta Marar, Kalamandalam Balaraman, Mattannur Sankarankutty Marar, , Thriprangodu Parameswaran Marar, Cheranalloor Sankarankutty Marar, Kallekkulangara Achuthankutty Marar, Sukapuram Radhakrishnan,Manjeri Haridas, Mattannur Sivaraman Marar, pallavur sreekumar, Manjeri Haridas, Kalamandalam Gopakumar, Kadannappilly Sankarankutty, Payyavur Narayana Marar, Porur Haridas, Porur Unnikrishnan, Kalpathy Balakrishnan, Cheruthazham Chandran, Kalamandalam Devarajan, Arangottukara Sivan, Athaloor Sivan, Kalanilayam Udayan Namboodiri, Dileep Sukapuram, Alamkode Manikandan, Kallur jayan Thrithala Kesavadas-Sankarakrishnan, Chendamangalam Unnikrishna Marar, Kanhangad Muraleedhara Marar, Thiruvalla Radhakrishnan, Guruvayur Haridas, Guruvayur Sasi, Thrithala Sreeni, Mannarkkad Hari, Mannarkkad Mohanan, Peruvanam Kuttan Marar, Peruvanam Satheesan Marar, Vellinezhi Anand, Panamanna Sasi, Sadanam Ramakrishnan, Neeleshwaram Santhosh Marar, Nandakumar, Pramodkumar, Mattannur Srikanth-Sriraj, Cherpulassery Rajesh, Jayan and Vijayan, Kanhangad (Madiyan Kovilakam) Radhakrishna Marar Kandalloor Sadasiavan, Kandalloor Unnikrishnan, Chovallur Mohana Variar and Kalanilayam Ratheesh, Ethanur Krishnadas. The late masters of the modern age, say from the 1950s, include Malamakkavu Kesava Poduval, Thiruvegappura Rama Poduval and Thiruvegappura Shankunni Poduval, Pallassana Padmanabha Marar, Menapram Kunhirama Marar (Melapramani at Thiruvangadu Sriramaswamy temple), Thiyyadi (Narayanan) Nambiar, Thrithala Kunhikrishna Poduval, Pallavur Appu Marar, Alipparambu Sivarama Poduval, Thrithala Kesava Poduval, Peruvanam Appu Marar, Pallavur Kunhukuttan Marar, Kodulil Gopi Poduval, Pookkattiri Divakara Poduval, Neettiyathu Govindan Nair, Mulangunnathukavu Appukutta Kurup, Angadippuram Krishnadas, Kottakkal Kuttan Marar, Nileswaram Balakrishna Marar and Sadanam Divakara Marar. Women and the current change of trend in traditional views Although it