Crafting the beats: Dahisar’s karigars
Irfan Shaikh and his community reside in the bustling lanes of Mumbai’s Dahisar. They keep the age-old tradition of dholak-making alive against modern-day challenges. A film showcasing Irfan and his time-tested craft
December 13, 2024 | Aayna
Badyokars of Majuli struggle to stay in tune
Percussion instruments play a big role in Assamese festivals celebrated through the year. The skilled craftsmen who make and repair these critical dhols, khols and more, say the new anti-slaughter law has led to a rise in prices, and harassment
March 26, 2024 | Prakash Bhuyan
The dulduli and dalkhai artists of Sambalpur
In western Odisha, the dhole, nishan, tasha, muhuri and khartal are played and performed by skilled artists drawn from Dalit, Adivasi and Brahmin communities
September 24, 2023 | Shakti Sekhar Panigrahi
Dhakis for Durga: without skipping a drumbeat
The drums of Agartala’s dhakis are already pounding, with Durga Puja beginning on October 11. At other times, these drummers ply cycle rickshaws, or work as vendors, farmers, plumbers and electricians
October 8, 2021 | Sayandeep Roy
Peruvemba: struggling to retain its rhythm
With no sales in the Covid-19 lockdown, and difficulty in procuring rawhide for their bespoke percussion instruments, the Kadachi Kollan craftspeople in Kerala’s Peruvemba village are missing a steady income
January 19, 2021 | K.A. Shaji
The down but not out dhakis of the Durga Puja
The traditional drummers of rural Bengal are having a hard time in Kolkata this season
October 26, 2020 | Ritayan Mukherjee
In Tamil Nadu: playing Parai on lockdown, live!
Parai artists Manimaran and Magizhini are tapping into social media to continue performing under lockdown, and spreading awareness about Covid-19 through talks and recorded videos
April 4, 2020 | Kavitha Muralidharan
The bamboo drummers of Kasargod
In Parappa village of Kerala, men from the Mavilan Adivasi community drum on ‘grass’ during festivals and other events, and for the rest of the year these musicians are daily wage labourers
April 16, 2019 | Gopika Ajayan
The baja for the nacha in Achhoti
Every year, musicians from Dalit communities in western Odisha gather at a square in Raipur, and wait to be hired by OBC dance groups from Chhattisgarh
February 13, 2019 | Purusottam Thakur
‘The mountain, forest and streams are our gods’
The Adivasis of the Niyamgiri hills of Odisha won a victory in 2013 against mining, but the threats to their ancestral land remain. Rajkishor Sunani, poet-activist, sang about at the recent Niyamgiri festival
April 20, 2018 | Purusottam Thakur
Dancing to the dollu in Hesaraghatta
Young women on the outskirts of Bengaluru excel at a Kannada drum-and-dance form long thought to be a skill for burly men. In the video here, watch the group perform with extraordinary energy and rhythm
November 14, 2017 | Vishaka George
Drums and dreams beyond pickle and papad
Battling barbs from villagers, abusive husbands, and centuries-old caste prejudices, ten Dalit women in Dhibra village of Bihar have formed a band – and now have many marching and swaying to their beat
August 3, 2017 | Puja Awasthi
Melodies of Mahila Holi in Munsiari
In the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, different types of Holi are celebrated across many days, and the festivities are a time for the women in the villages here to dance and let their songs reverberate amid the mountains. A photo story for PARI's International Women’s Day series throughout March
March 17, 2017 | Arpita Chakrabarty
Dhol on wheels
Srilal Sahani is a fish-seller by day and an extraordinary musician by evening – he rides hands-off on a bicycle while playing a dhol and cymbals behind him – in Santiniketan, West Bengal
December 22, 2016 | Sinchita Maji
Bringing them to school singing and drumming
In Mawaiya Uparhar village in Uttar Pradesh, a student-led procession to promote the education of girls gave Mamta Nishad a chance to study further
November 11, 2016 | Saurabh Chandra
Dawandi
A village crier in Solapur spreads messages to the beats of a drum
September 27, 2016 | Namita Waikar
Drums, bagpipes and Choliya dance
Choliya troupes in Uttarakhand integrate Scottish bagpipes into rural Indian music
April 2, 2016 | Yashashwini Raghunandan & Ekta Mittal
A different kind of drumbeat
Two young girls at Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam play the mridangam
November 13, 2015 | Namita Waikar
Pung
This traditional drum of Manipur's Meitei community is central to their culture, and to spectacular music and dance
December 31, 2015 | Anubha Bhonsle & Sunzu Bachaspatimayum
Kali dances - Thappattam
Watch Kali Veerapadran – perhaps the only male dancer who has mastered the classical dance form Bharatanatyam, as well as three ancient Tamil folk dance forms – in a riveting performance
