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Description: | The dhol, cymbals and bamboo clappers provide percussion accompaniment for dance songs in Assam, notably at Bahag or Rangali Bihu, the week-long mid-April festival that is celebrated throughout the state. Gamosas, white cloths with red patterned borders, are exchanged as gifts at this time, and the wooden shell of the dhol is usually wrapped in one when played for the celebrations.
Bihu dhol, barrel drum. The shell is hollowed from a log of jackfruit tree wood (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.), with a stepped profile forming a flange at the right hand end. The ends of the shell are painted black and the central section red, edged by two bands of six yellow stripes. The heads and the lacing are of cowhide. The larger left-hand head is lapped over a bamboo hoop. The smaller right-hand head consists of two layers, an iouter head with a square hole cut into the centre, and a complete inner head. Small pieces of leather lie between the two skins that are fixed into position by a plaited leather hoop. Slips of bamboo are wedged below the hoop against the flange in the shell. A long length of lacing, tensioning the skins, runs between the two hoops in alternating straight and diagonal lines. A rope fastened to the drum passes over the player's right shoulder, suspending the instrument horizontally.
caption: Frontal view of object no. P407. | Publisher: | http://www.horniman.ac.uk/ | Rights holder: | Horniman Museum and Gardens | Subjects: | barrel drums cotton bamboo 211.222.12 Individual double-skin barrel drums hide both heads played leather dhols | Source: | Horniman Museum | Identifier: | oai:oai.horniman.ac.uk:object-145768 | Go to resource |
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