Hands, skins and tension

The dhadd is a small drum with a narrow middle and skin covering both ends. Kirpal Kazak’s signed university encyclopedia article distinguishes its playing action from a damru sounded by swinging knotted cords. The dhadd is struck by the ends of the fingers on one head. Around its lacing, another cord allows the performer to tighten or loosen tension while playing, changing the resonance. Kazak describes tuning in relation to sa and varying pressure to obtain two or three pitches in relation to the singer’s voice. The drum therefore contributes a changing sound as well as a repeated pulse. His account places it beside sarangi and links its singers with the name dhadi. Repertoire examples range across Mirza, Heer, Sohni–Mahiwal, Sassi and vars, placing the instrument within a broad field of narrative singing.[1]

Within a performing group

In his 2003 ethnography, Michael Nijhawan describes two dhadd players and a sarangi player as a characteristic dhadi formation. In the Sikh performances he studied, a fourth member supplied spoken historical narration. He also notes flexibility in instrumentation. His analysis follows Sikh and Sufi performers whose repertoires and patronage differed while the instruments remained recognisable features of the practice. A drum’s association with this genre therefore does not make every group’s stories, affiliation or performance setting the same. The study records these relationships through particular field encounters, giving the ensemble a dated social context.[2]

Objects and musical memory

The Horniman’s catalogue of a small sarangi made in Boparai Kalan, Ludhiana district, names the hourglass-shaped dhad as its usual partner, connecting the drum with a specific maker-linked instrument record.[3]

Sarika Sharma’s 2019 account of Sangeetshala at Punjab Kala Bhawan in Chandigarh lists Amar Singh Shaunki’s dadh and sarangi together in its performing-arts collection. That paired attribution preserves a connection with a named performer as well as an instrument type, within a report about the collection’s threatened display space.[4]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Kirpal Kazak; Punjabi University, Patiala. ਲੋਕ ਸਾਜ਼ — signed Bal Vishavkosh article ↗signed university encyclopedia article · Source date: 2014-01-20 (online article) · Locator: Signed Kirpal Kazak Bal Vishavkosh article: complete dhadd passage following percussion classifications, narrow middle, two skins, tension cord, finger action, tuning and repertoire; author line posted 20 January 2014. Accessed 2026-11-01.Actual signed article and complete dhadd passage read separately from Kazak’s cultural dictionary. Construction and playing descriptions are used; mythic origin narratives and caste-based exclusions elsewhere in the article are not adopted.Return to Script form 1 ↑Return to Hands, skins and tension, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Michael Nijhawan; International Journal of Punjab Studies 10(1&2). Shared Melodies, Partitioned Repertoires? An Ethnography of Sikh and Sufi Dhadi Performance in Contemporary Punjab ↗scholarly ethnography · Source date: 2003 · Locator: Printed p.49 / PDF p.52, ensemble, narration and flexibility; printed pp.47–53 / PDF pp.50–56, differing performance/patronage contexts. Accessed 2026-11-01.Actual journal cover, contents and article passages read from the scanned issue through OCR. The ensemble account is dated to this fieldwork; seventeenth-century passages quoted through Bor and broad contemporary decline claims are not adopted.Return to Within a performing group, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Horniman Museum and Gardens. Chhoti sarangi, object 2006.474.1 ↗primary museum object catalogue · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: First Commentary paragraph after object 2006.474.1 maker description, small sarangi and hourglass dhad pairing. Accessed 2026-11-01.Actual object description and first playing-commentary paragraph read. The Ludhiana maker attribution and this object’s construction are used; the later garbled quotation from a separate Nayyar encyclopedia contribution is excluded.Return to Objects and musical memory, paragraph 1 ↑
  4. Sarika Sharma; Tribune News Service. Folk arts museum turned into office ↗firsthand cultural-heritage report · Source date: 2019-02-14 (updated; Chandigarh dateline 13 February) · Locator: 14 February 2019 updated report, collection list naming Amar Singh Shaunki’s dadh and sarangi; museum-display dispute context. Accessed 2026-11-01.Actual report and attributed responses read. The named collection and dispute are dated to 2019; the report does not establish the instruments’ present location or prove an inventor.Return to Objects and musical memory, paragraph 2 ↑
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Record PH-CUL-0062 · English edition · human review not performed