The rabab is a short-necked, fretless lute carved from a single piece of mulberry wood, with a skin-covered belly and gut strings plucked with a plectrum. It came to Punjab from Afghanistan and Persia and was the instrument of the Muslim mirasi musicians of the region.
Bhai Mardana, the lifelong companion of Guru Nanak, played the rabab on all the Guru's journeys; tradition says Nanak's sister Bebe Nanaki gave money for it, and that it was made by a craftsman called Bhai Phiranda. The word bani, the Gurus' sacred verse, was first heard to the sound of its strings, and the descendants of Mardana, the rababis, sang at the Darbar Sahib for centuries.
The Sikh form, the Firandia rabab, is slightly different from the Afghan instrument. After Partition, when the Muslim rababis left for Pakistan, the instrument nearly disappeared from Sikh kirtan; it is now being revived.
More instruments
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 big double-headed drum, the heartbeat of bhangra and the harvest.
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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.
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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.