Unlike in the West where Steinway is synonymous with his pianos, in India, instrument-makers are seldom recognised. From brute force to delicate strokes, the tabla’s journey of creation is a poignant one, where toughened hands of unsung artisans temper raw goat hide that can produce both percussive and melodic magic. The tabla is considered one of the world’s most refined and evolved percussion instruments and perhaps the only one to be literally tuned to a pitch on the melodic scale. Its characteristic sound is the result of a chain of steps followed scrupulously by the hands that craft it.

A jodi or tabla pair comprises dayan, the right-hand treble drum generally made of shisham or neem wood sourced from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh and areas around Delhi and Kolkata, and bayan, the left-hand bass drum made of either copper, brass or steel. Both rest on tough cotton rings called chumbal. The drum tops or poodi are made of goat hide and remain covered with gaadi or cloth covers when the instrument is not in use. While bayans come in varied sizes, the dayan’s size determines its pitch. For left-handed tabla players, the dayan and bayan are interchanged but are addressed by the same terms.

Engineering skin

Following some of India’s veteran makers of the tabla unveils a fascinating process. Senior tabla-maker Narendra Wadekar explains each step involved in crafting the instrument at his Mumbai workshop. Sheets of stiff goat hide are soaked in water for around half an hour to soften them. A thin layer for the ‘kinaar’, the poodi’s outer ring, and a slightly thicker one for the centre are cut and stitched together to form the first stage of the poodi. Forty-eight holes or ghar for the dayan and 64 for the bayan are made at the edges along the poodi’s circumference, through which thin layers of soaked buffalo hide straps (called maalu in Marathi) are passed and stitched to the poodi. These will later become the intricate gajra that holds the poodi in place. Smaller triangular pieces of hide are fitted underneath the poodis for extra strength.

Two dayan and bayan pieces, on which the unfinished poodi are fit, are then tied together with cotton ropes for four days and exposed to sunlight to settle the poodi over the body. The pieces are then untied, the inner triangular sheets chopped to a smaller size and thick buffalo hide straps called baddi are passed through each ghar. These run vertically along both the dayan and the bayan to pull the membrane and retain its tautness. The foundation of the siyaahi (from the Persian siyaah or black), the small black circle in the centre of the poodi, is then prepared. Though its ingredients are a well-kept secret among most tabla-makers, they mention iron fillings as the key material.

The siyaahi is a feature exclusive to South Asian percussion instruments. According to the physicist C. V. Raman, known for his investigation into the unique sound of the mridanga and tabla, the instruments “contained the solution in a practical form to the acoustical problem of transforming a circular drumhead giving inharmonic overtones into a harmonic musical instrument.” The soru (black circle) of the mridanga is derived from a mixture of manganese dust, boiled rice and tamarind juice or a composition of fine iron filings and boiled rice which is shaped into the form of a disc. Dark silt from a riverbank, he noted, gives it tone.

In the tabla, the siyaahi takes about four hours to be made after which it is allowed to dry. With a damp cloth, the poodi is finally cleaned, polished and tuned with a hammer. At this stage, eight wooden blocks called gattha are fitted between the dayan’s body and the baddi to further stretch the membrane. These are lowered and raised with a steel hammer to adjust the pitch. A smooth black stone is rubbed over the finished poodi to further open the sound.

Tuning tales 

The bayan’s deep, basal sound is tuned simply by striking the steel hammer on the gajras. The dayan’s tuning, however, is more complex and involves meticulous hammering with controlled force above or below the gajra to ensure uniformity of pitch all around the poodi’s circumference. 

Wadekar explains, “Over time, when the poodis lose their tautness, making it difficult to bring the pitch back to tune, the gatthas are lowered to the maximum and finally, both the bayan, colloquially called dagga, and the dayan are brought to us for khenchi, the pulling procedure. We hold the drum between our feet, remove the gattha, open the baddi knots from underneath the drums and pull them with Herculean force as we tune the membrane back to pitch, then refit the gatthas either with one or two baddis followed by the final tuning by the artiste.”

Bespoke instruments 

Mumbai-based Sadanand Kashikar made tablas for many legends including Ahmed Jan Thirakwa, Amir Hussain Khan and Allarakha. His son Ramakant, a man of few words, carries forward the legacy. According to Ramakant, his father’s secret lay in fine, feather-soft poodis and thin siyaahis that would often last for over a decade. “A jodi usually takes around eight days to be completed. It’s worth the wait. The poodi’s texture and feel should enable the tabla player to produce any sound with absolute ease. Playing should be pure joy. A bad workman does indeed blame his tools, but it can sometimes be true if the craftsman’s understanding of the art’s subtle aesthetics is lacking,” says Ramakant.

Kolkata-style tablas have been sought after for their incredible quality and resonance. Mukta Das is one of the city’s most acknowledged tabla-makers and the torchbearer of a family tradition that spans across 11 generations. The Das family has catered to most of Bengal’s stalwarts, including Swapan Chaudhuri and Anindo Chatterjee. “I customise tablas according to the style of each maestro, his tone and method of striking the membrane,” shares Das. The Kolkata khaal or skin, he believes, is different from Mumbai’s relatively thicker one suited to the city’s climate. “It’s a myth that Kolkata poodis tear when exposed to other climates. In fact, they are played the world over,” he says.

What makes a good tabla? 

Veteran tabla and sitar maestro Nayan Ghosh provides an artiste’s perspective to the craft. A perfect jodi, he believes, can be identified by both technical and aesthetical aspects. “The dayan’s sound should be open and ringing like a bell. When struck with an open, loud thaap, the sound should continue for at least five to seven seconds. This is called aans. The bayan should sound open and basal, with a soft yet durable poodi that easily enables pitch variations,” he explains, adding the tabla-maker should ensure the kinaar and the sur (the inner layer between the kinaar and the siyaahi) are on the same pitch. “While the kinaar must produce an open ringing tone and the sur, a closed ringing one, the siyaahi’s sound should be closed, crisp and sharp.

The gajras must not be too thick and should be constructed lower than the poodi’s level to avoid hurting the tabla player’s thumb,” he says.

While Maharashtra’s tabla-makers, he says, believe that the instrument’s sound opens up after extensive playing, Kolkata offers tablas that can be taken to stage directly from the workshop. Today, even as modern innovations like nylon baddis and steel hooks appear in the market, craftsmen are skeptical. After all, the tabla is a handmade instrument crafted with natural materials. “The tabla,” says Ghosh, “is a complete musical instrument, not just a pair of drums.”

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Special thanks to Narsayya Gangaram for offering his workshop space for the photo shoot.