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PUNJAB WIKIਪੰਜਾਬپنجابCulture
Punjab WikiCultureInstruments
Chimta and dholki
Unknown · Wikimedia
Instrument

Chimta and dholki

ਚਿਮਟਾ

The fire tongs with jingles that keep time for folk singers and kirtan in the villages.

Alam Lohar sings Jugni to his chimta · Watch on YouTube

The chimta is a pair of long flat iron tongs, like those used to turn rotis in the fire, with small brass jingles fixed along its arms. The player strikes it, shakes it and clacks it to keep a rhythm, often while singing.

It is the instrument of the folk singer and of village kirtan: Alam Lohar made it a stage instrument, and it accompanies the songs of the devotees at shrines and the women's gatherings at weddings. The dholki, a small two-headed hand drum, often goes with it; at weddings women gather around the dholki at night to sing the old songs.

Cheap, loud and impossible to play badly, the chimta is the most democratic of Punjabi instruments.

More instruments

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Rabab
RababPlayed by Bhai Mardana, c. 1500

The fretless lute of Bhai Mardana, the first instrument of Sikh kirtan.

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Sarangi
SarangiFolk and classical

The bowed fiddle that sounds most like the human voice, partner of the dhadi singer.

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Taus
TausAttributed to Guru Hargobind, 1600s

The peacock-headed bowed instrument associated with Guru Hargobind.

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Tumbi
TumbiFolk

The one-stringed plucked instrument of Punjabi folk music, made famous by Yamla Jatt.

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Algoza
AlgozaFolk

The paired flutes played at once, one droning and one singing, by the herdsmen of the bar.

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Dhol
DholFolk

The big double-headed drum, the heartbeat of bhangra and the harvest.

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Dilruba
Dilruba18th century onward

A bowed instrument with a sitar's long fretted neck and a sarangi's skin-covered belly, sweet enough to be called 'heart-stealer'.

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Harmonium
HarmoniumFrom the 1870s

The hand-pumped reed organ that came with missionaries in the 19th century and became the voice of kirtan, qawwali and the Punjabi song.

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Tabla and jori
Tabla and jori

The pair of hand drums that keeps time for kirtan, qawwali and classical song, and the Punjab gharana of Lahore that made a style of its own.

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Dhadd
Dhadd

The small hourglass drum of the dhadis, held in one hand and tightened with the fingers to make it sing.

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Sarinda
Sarinda

The folk fiddle of the villages, with an open belly half covered in skin, played to accompany ballads and qisse.

▶ WatchGhara

The village water pot turned into a drum, played with the fingers and a ring at weddings and in folk ensembles.

▶ WatchKato

A wooden squirrel on a stick that jumps and clatters when a string is pulled: the joker of the bhangra and Malwai giddha.

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Bugchu
Bugchu

A small drum with a string fixed to its skin, plucked and pulled to make a rubbery, twanging beat.

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Sapp
Sapp

The 'snake': a lattice of wooden slats that stretches out and snaps shut with a clap.

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Been
Been

The snake charmer's pipe: two reed pipes set in a dried gourd that holds the player's breath, so the sound never stops.

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Wanjli: the herdsman's flute
Wanjli: the herdsman's flute

The bamboo flute of the herdsmen of the bar, the flute Ranjha played to Heer's buffaloes by the Chenab.

▶ Watch
Nagara
NagaraFrom c. 1684

The great kettledrum of kings and of the Khalsa, beaten at the Akal Takht and before Sikh processions.

Instruments of Punjabi music

From the rabab to the dhol

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