Origins of Tabla

Is it really necessary for us to know the history of Tabla? Probably Not. It will not make any difference in our quest to master new compositions and different sounds on Tabla. Moreover, the history of Tabla has always been contentious. There are many versions of the origin of Tabla which make it more of a "Choose the one you like" history. Let us see a couple of accepted versions.

The first version is more of a story in which two great performers of the Pakhawaj - a double-headed drum set horizontally and played by palms, were said to have regular Jugalbandi (Often mistaken for a Duel instead of its original meaning of Duet/twin) performances. One of them was Ustaad Sidharkhan Dadhi who was constantly beaten in the performances by his partner/competitor Pandit Bhagwandas. On one occasion, Ustaad Sidharkhan got so furious after losing to his competitor, that he broke the Pakhawaj in two parts. He then used these two pieces and created the tabla which was played using fingers instead of Palms.

Interesting? Well, there are a few arguments against this version. Let us consider one. The Pakhawaj and Tabla have extremely different playing styles. The former is played with Palms while the latter with fingers. The first Gharana (Ideology/playing style) i.e. Delhi, uses only two fingers to play most of its compositions. There are some Gharanas that use their palms more often than the Delhi Gharana. It seems hard to digest that the originating Gharana did not pick any of its predecessors playing style, while the Gharanas that came in later, used it?

The second version identifies Tabla as a descendent of an Arabian percussion instrument called Tabal Jung. This instrument was laden on Camels and used for encouraging the army during war. The third version claims that the origin of Tabla can be traced in the Persian literature where terms like Tabal Baladi, Tabal turkey etc. have been used for percussion instruments. It is said that Amir Khusro, a musician and scholar, employed in the court of Emperor Allaudin Khilji, transformed the Persian form of Tabla and molded it in its current form.