A term for different types of large cylindrical or barrel drum of South Asia. They are often described, together with the smaller Dholak as cylindrical, but most bulge in the middle, some slightly, some considerably. The names dholak and dholkī, mean literally ‘small dhol’, but in almost all cases the two differ in structure, playing technique and probably origin, quite apart from their difference in size.
Dhol are usually of wood, with two heads; the skins are attached to wooden hoops and laced by cords or ropes in a V-shape converted into a Y by metal tuning-rings or other devices (fig.1). An unusual feature of many dhol is that they are played with the treble head to the left, struck by the hand or a light stick. A heavier stick (dankā, daunko), often curved, is used for beating the right (bass) head, which is larger and of thicker skin. The pitch may be lowered by an interior tuning-load of resin, another sticky substance or a combination of the two. The drums are usually played standing, supported horizontally or diagonally before the player by a shoulder-strap, as the leading drum in outdoor music, together with struck metal idiophones or with other drums (such as kettledrums). Some dhol (such as those of Rajasthan), however, are played on the ground by a seated player, with the hands. A prominent feature of some dhol traditions is the use of thump strokes (knee, elbow etc.) in virtuoso playing.
In a smaller group of South Asian dhol the length of the drum is roughly equal to its widest diameter, or less. These may be considered shallow barrel drums, and they may be directly attributable to West Asian influence. They include the Rajasthani dhol, virtually cylindrical, and the bulging dhol of Garhwal (Uttar Pradesh). The latter is about 48 cm at its widest and of similar length; the goatskin heads (the skin of a male deer is sometimes used for the right head) are roughly 38 cm in diameter. The left head is struck with the fingers (sometimes of both hands), and the right with fingers, the knee or a stick about 46 cm long and wider (by about 5 cm) at the top. It is played, together with the kettledrum damaū, by members of the Āujī caste. The natõ kī dholak (‘acrobat’s dholak’) of Rajasthan (about 27 cm long and 23 cm wide at the heads) is truly a ‘small dhol’, but has the heads reversed, the right treble played with the hand and the left bass, with an interior tuning-load, with a stick. The dolu of Karnataka has a diameter (38 cm) more than twice its length (17 cm); it is cylindrical and the two heads are evenly pitched.
The greater number of South Asian dhol, however, and the duhl of Sind and drokol or dhol of Baluchistan, are large barrel drums, with a length exceeding the diameter in a ratio of approximately 5:4. Those of Sind, Punjab, Gujarat, Bengal and Orissa have a treble-left position and are played with a large stick (right) and the hand or a thin stick (left). These features were also found in the elongated barrel drum pataha of ancient and medieval India. The duhl prominent in Sindi music has a large repertory of strokes, rhythms and metres appropriate to its many contexts, which include government and public announcements; military, gathering and alarm calls; community (e.g. agricultural) work; the accompaniment of wedding parties, dancing, wrestling and acrobats; religious occasions; mourning (including Muharram); and, together with the kettledrums bher and nagārā, the ceremonies at the shrines of saints (such as that of Shah Abdul Latif at Bhitshah), playing in the naubat ensemble. In several contexts (e.g. wrestling) long suites of different rhythms (dass) are played to the accompaniment of the śahnāī (oboe) or, more recently, the bagpipe.
The Dhāk, a very large barrel drum of Bengal and Bihar, can be seen as a sub-type of the dhol. The dhol of Kashmir and that of Kumaon (Uttar Pradesh), and also the Baluchi drokol, while otherwise of this large barrel type, have their heads reversed, with the deeper side to the left. The Kashmiri dhol, about 40 cm long and 33 cm in diameter, is played on the right head with a thin stick and on the thicker left head with a heavier one by the Bhānd (mime community) in bhānd jeshna (traditional theatre), along with kettledrums (nagārā) and oboes (sūrnāī). (The combination of dhol, kettledrums and oboes is also very common throughout South Asia, in community dancing, wedding processions and at shrines etc.) The dhol of Kumaon is similarly played: here the left head has an interior tuning-load to lower the pitch. It is about 42 cm long and 34 cm in diameter. The dhol of the North-East (Assam, Manipur), while of this general type, are played with the hands.
The name dhol is also found in the South, where, however, in the forms tavil (see Nāgasvaram) and daula (or davula, Sri Lanka), it denotes different types of drum: the former, though a gently tapering barrel, about 44 cm long and 26 cm wide at the head, has large hoops which relate it to the old Indian ‘raised-barrel’ type; the latter is a long cylinder or raised-end type similar to the pambai of the South.
The dhol of Rajasthan, a double-headed cylindrical drum, may have a body of wood (preferred by Ādivāsī peoples) or of metal sheets (assembled vertically and riveted edge to edge). Medium-size drums have heads of goatskin, large ones (80 cm in diameter) of cowhide. The edge of the skin is wrapped round a kind of hoop that encloses the opening of the body. The two membranes are connected by Y-lacing, made of thick cotton cord, and sliding metal rings modify the tension. This arrangement does not always allow very precise tuning. The two skins have different pitches: the deeper, right head (nar: ‘male’), weighted by a paste of ashes, metal filings and oil applied to the interior centre of the skin, is struck with a curved stick; the higher, left head (mādā: ‘female’) is beaten with the palm and fingers of the left hand. Sometimes a second player beats the mādā head with two thin sticks.
This dhol has two playing positions according to whether the player is standing or sitting. When played standing the instrument is hung from a strap over his shoulder; when played sitting it is placed on the ground in front of the player and the professional female singers (dholi) and struck with the hands. By reason of its size and powerful, deep sonority the dhol is an open-air instrument. It is often accompanied by other percussion (generally the percussion tray thālī). It is considered a religious and auspicious instrument, and plays a very important role also in family and social ceremonies and celebrations, accompanying songs and dances. It also serves as an alarm instrument, to alert and gather the village community in case of emergency (such as floods, dacoīt-attacks etc.).
The dhol of the Hill Maria people of Bastar district, Madhya Pradesh, has a cylindrical wooden body, about a metre long and 30 cm in diameter; the heads are of cowhide and are connected to each other by thongs in V-lacing. Each player carries the drum horizontally before him, hung from his neck by a strap (fig.2). The left head is beaten with the hand, the right with a stick. Important in Maria culture, dhol accompany the marriage ‘buffalo dance’ (so called for its imitative movements and the ceremonial buffalo-horn headdress of the young men who play the dhol while dancing).
GroveI (‘Pataha’; A. Dick)
W. Kaufmann: ‘The Musical Instruments of the Hill Maria, Jhoria and Bastar Maria Gond Tribes’, EthM, v (1961), 1–9
K.S. Kothari: Indian Folk Musical Instruments (New Delhi, 1968)
N.A. Jairazbhoy: ‘A Preliminary Survey of the Oboe in India’, EthM, xiv (1970), 375–88
S. Ray: Music of Eastern India (Calcutta, 1973)
A. Chandola: Folk Drumming in the Himalayas (New York, 1977)
K. Kothari: Folk Musical Instruments of Rajasthan (Borunda, 1977)
B.C. Deva: Musical Instruments of India (Calcutta, 1978)
ALASTAIR DICK/R, GENEVIÈVE DOURNON/R