Ask anyone what Durga Puja sounds like and the answer is the dhak. The big drum starts on Shashthi and barely stops for five days. It plays when the goddess is welcomed, through the morning prayers, at the evening arati and, at its loudest, when she leaves.
The drum
A dhak is a large barrel-shaped wooden drum with skin stretched over both ends. It hangs from the player’s shoulder or neck on a strap and is played with two thin sticks. Most are crowned with a plume of white feathers that sways as the drummer moves, so a dhak looks almost as festive as it sounds.
It rarely plays alone. A kansor, a small bell-metal plate struck with a stick, keeps time beside it, often in the hands of a boy learning the trade from his father or uncle.
The dhakis
Most dhakis are from villages across rural Bengal, and for many families the Puja season is the most important earning of the year. They travel to the city before Shashthi, and committees hire them for the five days. A dhaki usually lives at the pandal for the length of the Puja, sleeping behind the stage and eating with the volunteers.
For decades, many of them have gathered at Sealdah station in the days before the Puja, where committee members come to listen and hire them right there on the platform. It is one of the city’s great pre-Puja sights: rows of drummers playing to show what they can do.
A rhythm for every rite
The dhak follows the Puja through the day. It plays at the bodhon on Shashthi, at the morning puja and pushpanjali, and at the evening arati, when the priest waves lamps and incense before the goddess. The arati is when the dhunuchi naach happens: people dance holding a dhunuchi, a clay burner filled with burning coconut husk and resin, its smoke rising around them in time with the drum.
The rhythm changes for the Sandhi Puja, the sacred moment where Ashtami meets Nabami, and again on Dashami. On the last day the beat for the bisarjan is fast and insistent, and it carries the procession all the way to the river.
Keeping the beat going
Recorded music and electronic drums now compete with live dhakis, and some pujas cut costs by hiring fewer of them. At the same time, the dhak has found new audiences. Groups of women dhakis have begun playing at city pujas, a sight unheard of a generation ago, and dhak performances now turn up at concerts and festivals outside the Puja season.
Hearing it at its best
- Go for the evening arati, usually after dark, when the dhak and the dhunuchi naach come together.
- Ashtami night and the Sandhi Puja are when the drumming is at its most intense. The schedule page has this year’s exact timing.
- Bonedi bari pujas often keep the older rhythms. Try one in north Kolkata.
- If you enjoy the playing, a small tip for the dhakis is customary and always welcome.