A South Asian percussion instrument, it is a two-headed drum with a wooden body and two differently sized faces. The larger face is covered with buffalo skin while the smaller is covered in goat skin. The body is also laced with cotton rope with steel rings or pegs to manipulate the tension while playing. During a performance, it can be held on the performer’s lap or played while standing up or pressed down with one knee while seated on the floor. It is popular in Indian folk music and other forms of Indian diasporic music.
More Definitions
Mridangam
An Indian percussion instrument, the mridangam is a two-headed drum with an angular, barrel-shaped body made of wood, with an…
Dafli
A percussion instrument, it is a smaller version of a Persian instrument known as daf. It consists of a circular…
Santoor
A South Asian stringed instrument, it is a hollow trapezoid wooden box which generally has twenty-five bridges, with four steel…
Doha
A form of Indian poetry, it is a self-contained rhyming couplet consisting of two lines and formed of twenty-four syllables…
Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi
Founded in 1958 and located in Thrissur, it is an arts and culture institution managed by the Kerala state government’s…
Manjira
An Indian idiophonic instrument whose simplest form consists of a pair of small metal cymbals connected by a string. The…
Dhol
A percussion instrument in the Indian subcontinent, it is made of wood, brass, leather, cotton, parchment and metal. Though there…
Dadariya
A form of popular folk or field song from Chhattisgarh that is typically sung by people while harvesting paddy fields.