Double-headed cylindrical or barrel drums of South Asia. They are of medium size, and have been described as cylindrical drums but they often taper at the ends. The name is a diminutive of Dhol, but this drum is of a distinct type, with its own historical roots.
Drums of this name and type, with some variation in size, are widely distributed in northern and central South Asia. They are best described as elongated barrel drums: the ratio of length to maximum diameter usually exceeds two to one, and the width at the centre is usually larger than at the heads. In this they contrast with the larger dhol, where the ratio of width to length approaches, or sometimes exceeds, one to one. They also differ from the tuned elongated barrel drums, mrdanga, in that they do not have a permanent hardened tuning-paste. They are predominantly played with the fingers.
Though the name dholak is Persian, it does not seem to occur in the earlier Sultanate records. Both the dhol and the dholakcan be traced back to the indigenous drum pataha. The dholakbecame important especially in the Mughal period (1526–1857) as a professional and court-music drum, but also as an amateur and domestic instrument, often played by women.
Modern dholak or dholki are of wood, about 40 to 50 cm long and with a diameter at the two equal heads of around 20 cm. The skins are fitted on stiff leather hoops and braced with cotton cords laced in a V pattern converted to a Y by metal tuning-rings or tension-loops towards the right head. The pitch of the left head is usually lowered by a resinous tuning-load stuck to the interior of the skin. Though not tuned to a precise pitch the heads differ in pitch and timbre. The drum is played on the lap, or on the ground, with hand and finger strokes. The right fingers produce a limited variety of sounds on or near the rim, while the left hand has two main strokes, an open resonant tap and a closed flat-hand slap. The latter also produces distinctive pitch-variation by pressure of the heel of the palm. Rolls, of the right fingers and from head to head, are also common.
The dholak survives chiefly in North-Central and North-West India and Pakistan, among performers such as the qawwāl (singers of Muslim devotional music, qawwālī), the Manganiyār musicians of Rajasthan etc. It is also still found as a domestic instrument, especially played by women, in areas such as Sind, Pakistan, thus continuing the tradition often described or depicted in Mughal and provincial court sources, where it was played by the women of the palace to accompany birth and wedding songs and sometimes also dance.
This version of the drum is found in southern Bihar, among non-Ādivāsī musicians (dholkī, dhulkī) and certain Ādivāsī groups, such as the Mundā (dulkī).
Dholkī are of various sizes but most commonly range from about 50 to 65 cm long and 35 to 45 cm deep at the widest part. The hollow shell of the non-Ādivāsī dholkī, carved from a single block of wood, may be slightly barrel-shaped or, in some cases, almost cylindrical, with heads of approximately the same size, from 25 to 29 cm. Mundāri dulki are generally barrel-shaped, with one head about 28 cm in diameter and the other, usually played with the right hand, about 25 cm in diameter. The smaller head is made of goatskin and the larger, deeper in pitch, of unsplit calfhide. A paste of iron filings or tree resin and oil is often applied to the centre of the outer surface of the left head. Both heads of the Mundāri dulki also have a paste of cooked flour or incense and oil on their inner surfaces: one layer of the paste covers the entire inner surface of the larger head, and several very thin layers cover a circular patch in the centre of the smaller one.
Dholkī shells may be made by anyone, but the heads are prepared and attached by members of leatherworking communities, such as the Gha si, Gorāit or Mahali. Each head is fitted with a leather, straw or wooden hoop and both skin and hoop are secured by leather or cotton cord laces running from one head to the other in a V-shaped pattern. Small metal rings, each placed round a pair of adjacent laces, regulate the tension of the heads. The dholki used in the chau(cho) dance ensemble of south-eastern Bihar and West Bengal is distinct in that its right head is secured by a wide iron hoop which stretches the skin downwards, 4 to 5 cm away from the opening of the shell.
The player, normally a man, holds the drum horizontally before him, slung from his neck by a leather or cloth strap. The right head is played directly with the hand and the left is beaten with a stick, slightly wider at its playing end and sometimes wrapped in hide. Drumstrokes and patterns are represented by vocalizations, which may vary considerably from village to village and even from drummer to drummer. Non-Ādivāsī folk musicians in southern Bihar play dholkī in an ensemble of nagara and karah drums to accompany mardana jhumar (‘women’s jhumar’), domkac (marriage season), songs and dances, including the paīki (sword-dance). In certain eastern areas, the dholkī is also the principal accompanying instrument in staged solo and small group singing.
The Mundāri dulki was probably borrowed from neighbouring non-Ādivāsī musicians, appearing first in Mundāri plains villages and eventually spreading to the more isolated hills. In the early 20th century the dulki was used as a supporting drum in the percussion ensemble of the drums dumang, nagaraand rabaga and the cymbals cua, which accompanied all outdoor Mundāri communal dancing and singing. At least two generations ago the dulki began to assume the musical role of the dumangas the lead drum in the ensemble. In the Mundāri percussion ensemble one dulki player is now recognized by the other drummers as the ensemble leader. One or more dulki are also necessary in processions and indoor group singing. Unlike the Mundāri nagara, dulki are owned by individuals rather than by a village or community. In traditional Mundāri song texts the dulkiis usually paired with the dumang.
This drum is used extensively in Sri Lanka, in both Buddhist and Hindu communities, to accompany musical forms imported from India. It is now usually conical in shape, with a badama spot (which affects the tuning and timbre) on one head. The hemp (or nylon) braces pass lengthways down the drum, through metal rings and over wooden blocks, both of which are used for tuning.
The term is also used more or less indiscriminately in Sri Lanka to denote any folk or popular drum, those that are more properly termed demala-berē, for example, often being called dōlak.
Grove6 (‘Pakistan’; R. Qureshi)
N.A. Willard: A Treatise on the Music of Hindustan [1834], repr. in S.M. Tagore: Hindu Music from Various Authors (Calcutta, 1875, 2/1882/R)
N.A. Baloch: Musical Instruments of the Lower Indus Valley of Sind (Hyderabad, 1966)
K.S. Kothari: Indian Folk Musical Instruments (New Delhi, 1968)
J. Hoffmann and A. van Emelen: ‘Dhulki, dulki’, Encyclopaedia mundarica (Patna, 1930–41), 1226 only
K.S. Kothari: Indian Folk Musical Instruments (New Delhi, 1968), 42–4
O. Prasad: Munda: Music and Dance (diss., Ranchi U., 1971), 69–70
B.C. Deva: Musical Instruments of India: their History and Development (Calcutta, 1978), 84 only
ALASTAIR DICK (1), CAROL M. BABIRACKI (2), NATALIE WEBBER (3)