Dhol: India musical instrument

The dhol can refer to any one of a number of analogous kinds of double-headed musical drum commonly used, with regional disparities, all through the Indian subcontinent. The range of circulation in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan mainly includes the northern areas like Assam Valley, Gujarat, Kashmir, Maharashtra, Konkan and Goa, Punjab, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Sindh and Uttar Pradesh. The variety of the musical instrument stretches westward as far as the eastern part of Afghanistan. The Punjabi dhol is probably best known abroad because of the prominent place of the instrument in the rhythm of common Punjabi bhangra music.

source of picture: world-of-tabla.com

 The player of the musical instrument is called dholi.

The dhol is a double-sided barrel drum that is played commonly as an accompanying musical instrument in regional music forms. In qawwali music, the name of the instrument is used to describe an analogous musical instrument, but smaller drum used with the smaller tabla, as a substitute for the left hand tabla. The typical sizes of the musical instrument differ somewhat from region to region. In Punjabi, the musical instrument remains large and massive to manufacture the preferred loud bass. In other regions, dhols can be found in different shapes and sizes. The musical instruments are produced with various woods and materials. The musical drum is made up of a wooden barrel with animal hide spread over the open ends of the instrument, covering the open ends of the instrument completely. The skins can be spread or loosened with a tightening mechanism consisting of either interwoven ropes, or nut and bolts. Tightening or loosening the skins of the instrument slightly changes the pitch of the instrument’s sound. The spread skin on one end of the instrument is thicker than the other and manufactures a deep low frequency sound and the other is thinner and manufactures a higher frequency sound. The versions of the musical instrument that has synthetic or plastic, treble skins are common.

The musical instrument is played with the use of wooden sticks, often produced out of bamboo and cane wood. The stick that is used to play the bass side of the musical instrument is called ‘dagga’ in Punjabi. This stick is approximately about 10 mm in diameter and is bent in quarter-circular arc on one extreme that strikes the musical instrument. The other stick used for the playing of the musical instrument is called ‘tihli’. This stick is much thinner and also more flexible and used to perform the higher note end of the musical instrument.

The musical instrument is hanged over the neck of the player with the use of a strap often manufactured of woven cotton. The surface of the wooden drum is in some circumstances ornamented with engraved styles and paints.

Dozens of rhythms were performed on the Punjabi musical instrument in the pre-Partition era, which resembled to particular roles. Meanwhile, with the deterioration or departure of some cultural practices, the contemporary generations of dhol-performers have become unacquainted with a lot of these. At the same time, the development of folkloric dramatic bhangra dance in Indian Punjab stimulated the production of several new rhythms especially to that dance.

Some of the most common rhythms of the Punjabi are bhangra, dhamaal and kaharva. The staged bhangra dance patenting in the 1950s, gave special eminence to kaharva for the performance of action known as luddi. In the 1970s, several more actions were supplemented to the staged bhangra to go with the kaharva rhythm that began to become one of the most important rhythms linked with the dance. At the same time, this kind of rhythm would be performed on the dholki drum to accompany Punjabi music. So in 1990s, when Punjabi pop songs started to arouse bhangra dance, they made used of the kaharva rhythm.

The introduction of the electronic devices like tape recorder, has led to a fall in the popularity of the players of the musical instrument in celebratory events. Nonetheless, dhol music still features in the studio recordings of the modern day raas, garba and bhangra music artists. An analogous musical instrument is the dholak or dholki.

The dhol is a drum that is traced back to the 15^th century. The musical instrument was perhaps introduced to the Indian subcontinent through the Persian drum kind called dohol. The proof for this is seen in Ain-i-Akbari that defines the use of the dohol musical drum in the orchestra of the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great.

In the western Punjab, the beats of the musical instrument have been an element in the ceremonials of the great Sufi mystic and their followers. The styles of the musical instrument have been fabricated to facilitate the mind of the devotee, who is pursuing spiritual trance. Traditionally, the Punjabi version of the musical instrument has been the domain of men.

In Assam, the musical instrument used in Rongali Bihu , the most beloved carnival of the Assamese people.

The musical instrument is a crucial part of Goan shigmo celebration. The dhol also is an essential section of Goan temple music; the temple dhol was customarily performed by a particular caste.

The musical instrument was used by Gujaratis to accompany garba during the celebrations like Navaratri. The garba, are folk melodies that defines the loveliness of the divine mother.

The musical instrument, which is called dhollu in kannada, accompanies a folk dance form called dollu kunitha and is played by the people of the Kuruba of Karnataka.

This instrument is the primary musical instrument in the Pashtun dance called attan.

The musical instrument has become popular in some other parts of the world because of the South Asian diaspora. The musical instrument has been a popular one in both informal and formal dance performances for many years.