Dhol: hearing history through a drum
Examine a Punjabi dhol through its construction, performance and the museum records that help distinguish regional instruments.
Punjab, with comparative South Asian records
Culture · A guide to the archive
Instruments and ensembles
Compare construction, playing actions, named makers and documented performance settings.
How to approach this subject
Begin with a particular object or performance account. These guides distinguish a museum example’s material and strings from a description of a broader instrument family. Compare tumbi with the ballad tumba, notice how sarangi and sarinda are described, and follow the paired roles of drum and bowed instrument into an ensemble. Keep the catalogue’s region, the maker’s location and the setting of a performance as separate pieces of evidence.
An intentional selection
Begin with these entries
Chimta: tongs, jingles and performance
See how a tong-shaped instrument sounds through a Punjabi reference account, a museum object and an observed Islamabad performance.
Punjab; a documented performance in Islamabad
Tumbi: a single string and its wider journeys
Examine a museum tumbi, distinguish it from a ballad singer’s tumba and follow one performer-associated instrument into a heritage collection.
Punjab; Singapore museum collection; Chandigarh heritage record
Algoza: paired flutes and the ballad ensemble
Explore paired flute playing, regional comparisons and the algoza’s place beside the tumba and in a Punjab museum.
Punjab; regional comparison with Rajasthan
Sarangi in Punjab: a maker, a bow and an ensemble
Start with a small sarangi made in Ludhiana district, then explore ensemble playing and the instrument family’s varied shapes.
Boparai Kalan, Ludhiana district; Punjabi dhadi fieldwork
Sarinda in Punjab: open chambers and resonant strings
Compare a museum example described as Punjabi in style with scholarly classification and another late nineteenth-century sarinda.
Punjab-style museum attribution; wider South Asian comparisons
Dhadd: a hand drum beside the sarangi
Explore the dhadd’s narrow body, changing string tension and place within documented Punjabi performance and heritage collections.
Punjab; Ludhiana maker-linked catalogue and Chandigarh collection
Bugchu: a pulled string and a skin-covered bowl
Explore Bugchu and Bugdu through instrument descriptions, a college workshop and a dated university festival programme.
Punjab; a teaching description from Surrey, British Columbia
Iktara traditions: one string, different instruments
Compare one-string names and constructions through museum descriptions and a documented Punjabi devotional performer.
Punjab; comparative museum example from Bengal or Orissa