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Tabla

Alternate name(s)
  • Dayan
Date1900-1925 ca.
Place MadeIndia, Asia
Serial No.none
Signednone
Markingsnone
DescriptionCylindrical rosewood (sheesham) body with an animal-skin head attached with rawhide lacing. Traditionally, a paste made of water, flour, soot, iron dust, and other materials (a rubber pad is a contemporary substitute), is applied to the head to focus the sound, allowing for a variety of pitches and tones in the hands of a skilled player. Played as a set with NMM 1189, the tabla (a term referring to the set) provides the main rhythmic accompaniment for North Indian (Hindustani) classical music, Indian film music, folk, and devotional music in India, Pakistan, and other areas in Southeast Asia.
DimensionsShell height: 294 mm
Head diameter: 160 mm
ProvenancePreviously owned by Reverend Emmons E. White, Manamadurai, India. By 1947, likely sold to Arne B. Larson, Brookings, South Dakota.
Published ReferencesThomas E. Cross, Instruments of Burma, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Tibet, Shrine to Music Catalog Vol. II (1982), p. 5.

Thomas E. Cross, Instruments of Burma, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Tibet in the Collections of the Shrine to Music Museum, MM Thesis, University of South Dakota, 1983, p. 10, plate II.

André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 29.

Sarah E. Smith, “Percussion Instruments in America’s Shrine to Music Museum,” Percussive Notes Vol. 37, No. 1 (February 1999), pp. 6-10.
Credit LineArne B. Larson Collection, 1979
Object number01188
On View
Not on view
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