पखावज
The two-headed wooden drum of dhrupad, its bass head dressed with fresh flour paste
The pakhawaj is a two-headed wooden drum of North India, played lying on its side, and the main drum of dhrupad in Hindustani classical music.
Découvrez sa sonorité, sa fabrication et son entretien dans le guide de l’instrument.
The pakhawaj was the leading drum of North Indian art music from about 1500 to about 1850, and its fortunes followed those of dhrupad. In the 16th century Pundarika Vitthala's Nartananirnaya became the first text to identify it with the ancient mridanga. The Ragdarpana of 1666 names individual players, and paintings from the 17th to the mid-19th century show many women playing it.
Today's schools trace their teaching to the 19th century. Players name an 18th-century master, Lala Bhavani Das, as the common source, though little firm information about him survives. Tradition makes him the teacher of Kudau Singh (c. 1815 to 1910, by family account) and of Babu Jodh Singh, guru of Nana Panse, a court musician at Indore. The Nathdwara school grew in the Nathdwara temple from roots in Jaipur, with Purshottam Das (1907 to 1991) among its chief representatives. When festivals revived dhrupad from the 1970s, the pakhawaj shared in that revival.
The weight and moisture of the ata paste turn the bass head's high, dry sound into a low, resonant tone. The treble head carries a permanent black spot, the siyahi, built up in polished layers of glue, iron dust and other ingredients. A buffalo-hide strap laced over eight wooden blocks (gatta) holds the heads tight. Moving the blocks tunes the drum, and a hammer tapped on each head's woven ring refines it. Most players tune the heads about an octave apart, both to the tonic (Sa).
On the bass head the player uses the whole hand. Open strokes bounce off the paste, and closed strokes stay on the skin. On the treble head, different fingers and parts of the hand give open and closed sounds. Schools differ in the detail: Nathdwara and Kudau Singh players place the bass hand in different ways.
Seven basic strokes underlie the bols: five for the right hand and two, ga and ka, for the left. Each school has signature bols, and the same syllable can be pronounced or fingered in different ways from one school to another, so the link between syllable and stroke is not fixed.
Suivez ce parcours structuré pour maîtriser cette discipline
Learners sit on the floor with the drum on its side, resting on a cloth support or across the legs. This stage covers the two hand positions: the whole hand on the bass head, and different fingers and parts of the hand on the treble head. On each head the learner practises both open and closed strokes.
Bols are spoken syllables, each naming a stroke or a combination of strokes. Teachers often start with ta, din, thun and na, then add dha, the combined stroke of both hands. Learners recite compositions aloud before playing them, a practice called padhant, and keep reciting at every later stage.
A tala is a rhythmic cycle of beats (matras), and each tala has a fixed set of bols, its theka. This stage covers the thekas of the main dhrupad talas: Chautal (12 matras), Dhamar (14), Jhaptal and Sultal (10) and Tivra (7). Tintal (16) is the root tala of the Nathdwara school. Pakhawaj thekas do not mark stressed and unstressed beats as tabla thekas do.
Accompanists follow a dhrupad or dhamar singer whose claps hold the cycle and who may vary the rhythm against the drum. The same skills serve instrumental dhrupad on rudra veena and surbahar. The pakhawaj player takes a more virtuosic role than a tabla player in khayal, yet is often treated as the junior partner on stage.
A paran is the main pakhawaj composition, usually spanning two or more cycles and often ending with a tihai, a cadential phrase played three times. A solo usually opens with the theka and variations on it (theka prastar); some players first take the theka through multiples of the tempo (layakari), mostly in Chautal. Parans follow, and fast relas and jhalas close the solo.
Interprètes renommés de cette discipline
Regular practice and two hands with different jobs set the pace on the pakhawaj, the two-headed drum of dhrupad. At Foundation, the whole hand works the bass head; fingers and parts of the hand shape the treble head.
Next come the thekas. Each dhrupad tala, a rhythmic cycle such as Chautal with its 12 beats, has a fixed pattern of bols, the spoken stroke syllables. Our courses take you through the levels in order, and each award notes your learning hours. We teach the pakhawaj live and one-to-one online, with workshops and summer camps where enough learners sign up.
Begin the pakhawaj with KalaSudha at Foundation level, online or in a workshop. You start with the core bols, the spoken syllables of each stroke, reciting each one aloud before you play it. We teach children as well as adults; ask us about a starting age and about a drum size for a younger learner.
If you are returning after a long break, you start again where you left off. Our courses run in levels, and your teacher first checks where you stand.
Aditya Dip teaches pakhawaj through KalaSudha's online academy. The academy offers classes in every discipline of Indian classical music and keeps adding specialised courses and teachers. The courses are hybrid: KalaSudha brings physical workshops and summer camps where enough learners sign up, so you can learn online and in person.
To find a good pakhawaj teacher, or guru, look for one who can tell you who they learned from. From your first lesson, a good teacher checks how you recite the core bols, the spoken syllables of each stroke, before you play them. On KalaSudha, each teacher's lineage is on their profile. Pick one yourself, or ask us to match you.
Lessons are live and online, from £30 / $30 an hour, set by each teacher. If you have played before, your teacher first reviews where you stand. Where enough learners sign up, we also bring workshops and summer camps near them. Our courses include a pakhawaj course in three levels. Ask about pakhawaj lessons in the Academy.
Have more questions? Contact our support team and we'll be happy to help!
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