Tabla
 Among all the percussion instruments found in present
day india, the tabla is the most popular, particularly
in the North.
It's composed of two separate drums, each having double skins
and straps for tuning. The smallest of the pair is called
dayan or tabla, it's built from a half-solid,
half-hollow wooden trunk, and it's tuned to the tonic (fundamental
note) of the raga being played. The drum stressing
the lower tones is called bayan or duggi and
it's mostly metallic (bronze and copper being the most common
materials), though there are some made from clay. The tabla
is unique among percussion instruments due to its huge tonal
variety.
The tabla player can show off her skill and mastery
of the instrument in a solo concert, although she should be
equally skillful while accompanying a main player (sitar,
veena, etc).
The tabla evolved as a hybrid drum,
being influenced by other percussion instruments such as the
mridangam and the puskara. There are temples
in Bombay, such as Muktesvara's (sixth to seventh centuries
B.C.) or Bhuvanesvara's, that have paintings of the puskara.
The musicians of those times used to place the puskara's
small drum (called alinga) on their laps, allowing
them to play more than one drum at a time. If we consider
the drums' design, technology and musical structure on this
period, we can see several features of the present-day tabla.
The name tabla is probably derived from the Arabic
word "tabl", meaning "drum". There is also a legend saying
that Amir Khusro (famous musician and inventor in the Court
of Emperor Ackbar) invented the instrument after splitting
a pakhavaj in two. This is quite dubious, though, since
Abul Fazil (the Court's scribe at that time) doesn't describe
or even mention the tabla, casting a veil of uncertainty
over the claimed 'invention' by Amir Khusro. The Muslim invasion
of India undoubtedly influenced its culture, and therefore
the musical instruments, the tabla among them. However,
treaties and drawings start to describe the tabla in its present
form as late as the eighteenth century.
During the past two centuries, the tabla starts to
be more and more preponderant among the percussion instruments
used for Northern classical Indian music. Likewise, we can
trace the family ties of the gharanas back to the eighteenth
century. In these two hundred years, the tabla changed
slowly, with the dayan shrinking in size (and the bayan
growing), and it became the favourite instrument for playing
both classical and popular Northern Indian music.
If you wish to take lessons of this instrument, please send mail to tabla@sargam.com.ar. |
Pakhavaj
 The pakhavaj
is a two-faced percussion instrument, and an ancestor to the
modern tabla. It is bigger in size
and deeper in tone, usually used to accompany lower-pitched
instruments such as surbahar, although pakhawaj
solo instruments are not unheard-of.
Its sound fits naturally within the realms of serious, devotional
music, thus being the preferred percussion instrument to accompany
the ancient singing style of Dhrupad.
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