The dhol is a large barrel-shaped drum with a skin at each end, hung from the shoulder and played with two sticks: a heavy curved one, the dagga, on the bass side, and a thin cane, the tihli, on the treble side. Its sound carries across fields, and it was used once to announce news, gather people for war and drive the dancers at harvest.
The basic rhythm of bhangra, the chaal, comes from the dhol, and there are dozens of other rhythms for different dances and occasions: for the bride's arrival, for the Vaisakhi fair, for wrestling matches and for victory processions.
In Britain in the 1980s and 90s the dhol became the emblem of a new British Punjabi identity, and dhol players such as Gurcharan Mall in Birmingham trained thousands of young people. Today no Punjabi wedding anywhere in the world begins without one.
More instruments
The fretless lute of Bhai Mardana, the first instrument of Sikh kirtan.
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The bowed fiddle that sounds most like the human voice, partner of the dhadi singer.
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The peacock-headed bowed instrument associated with Guru Hargobind.
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The one-stringed plucked instrument of Punjabi folk music, made famous by Yamla Jatt.
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The paired flutes played at once, one droning and one singing, by the herdsmen of the bar.
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The fire tongs with jingles that keep time for folk singers and kirtan in the villages.
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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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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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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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The small hourglass drum of the dhadis, held in one hand and tightened with the fingers to make it sing.
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The folk fiddle of the villages, with an open belly half covered in skin, played to accompany ballads and qisse.
▶ WatchGharaThe village water pot turned into a drum, played with the fingers and a ring at weddings and in folk ensembles.
▶ WatchKatoA 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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A small drum with a string fixed to its skin, plucked and pulled to make a rubbery, twanging beat.
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The 'snake': a lattice of wooden slats that stretches out and snaps shut with a clap.
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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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The bamboo flute of the herdsmen of the bar, the flute Ranjha played to Heer's buffaloes by the Chenab.
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The great kettledrum of kings and of the Khalsa, beaten at the Akal Takht and before Sikh processions.