Not a single instrument but a tuned set — a semicircle of dayans, each pitched to a note of the raag, played melodically.
Not an instrument in its own right but an arrangement: a semicircle of ten or more dayans, each tuned to a different note of the raag's scale, played melodically by striking Na-type strokes around the arc. The name means "tabla waves." It turns the dayan's tuned ring into a melodic voice.
Tarang playing demands immaculate, identical Na production on every dayan in the set — tone quality is the whole game — plus the melodic literacy to render raag. It appears as a concert curiosity, but its existence is the neatest proof of the dayan's harmonic purity.
Further reading
C. V. Raman, "The Indian Musical Drums," Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Section A, Vol. 1 (1934).
