Musical Instruments

The music of Uttarakhand is drum music above all. The paired dhol and damau are the backbone of every ceremony, joined by the hourglass hurka, long brass horns and a struck brass plate. The knowledge of how to play them is a hereditary craft.

The dhol and damau are always played together: the dhol a two-sided barrel drum, the damau a shallow copper kettledrum, in the hands of the traditional Das or Auji drummer families. Their playing is not just rhythm but a language, the Dhol Sagar, with specific beats to summon deities, open a ceremony or greet a bride.

The hurka, a small hourglass drum, drives the Kumaoni jagar and the hurkiya baul work-songs. Over the top come the horns: the curved ransingha, the long straight turri and bhankora, and the nagphani, whose calls carry across a valley. A simple brass thali, struck by hand, keeps time in the jagar.

Wind and string instruments fill out the sound, from the murali and bansuri flutes to the masakbeen, a bagpipe adopted into hill bands. But it is the dhol-damau that no ceremony can do without.