Making all the right sounds with dholak

A group of artisans from the ‘Paradise On Earth’ has made Tiruchi their home

FROM KASHMIR TO TENNUR: Handicrafts personnel from Kashmir who have been camping at Tennur, have been making and marketing 'dolaks' in the city for the past few years. Photo: B.Velankanni Raj

The standard definition of a musician or percussionist may not fit them, but the dholak artisans from Kashmir are making all the right sounds with the instrument in the city.

A group of artisans from the ‘Paradise On Earth’ have made Tiruchi their home for the past three years. “We have inherited the art of making the dholak from our forefathers,” says Jeheruden (22), explaining the method being adopted by him.

Mohamad Mujir (35) his assistant, says that the instrument, by virtue of its portability and loud beats, attracts people across all age-groups.

The artisans work on the platforms below the Thennur Bridge, and normally each member of the group work for about 10 hours a day.

Together they make about 20 dholaks a day. “My two younger brothers – Karim Khan (19) and Zuber Ali (17) – sell the instruments at Big Bazaar and the Gandhi Market area,” says Jeheruden.

Though the group in Tiruchi makes instruments of uniform size, their relatives, who camp in Palani, make

dholaks of different sizes.

The artisans are also skilled in making a few other instruments including jalra . “But the demand in the central region is only for dholak they say, pointing to the huge stock of the instruments nearby.