The Pakhawaj, Ancestor of the Tabla
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पखावज (pakhawaj) is a barrel shaped, two headed drum widely considered an ancestor of the modern तबला, its deeper, resonant tone historically associated with older classical and devotional performance traditions across the wider subcontinent. Its deeper voice still carries traces of an older, somewhat different rhythmic sensibility than its more common descendant.
Though tabla has largely replaced pakhawaj in mainstream vocal accompaniment, the older instrument survives within certain classical and devotional contexts, prized for a particular depth of tone that some musicians and listeners continue to favour over its more widespread modern descendant. Dedicated practitioners have worked hard to keep this older tradition alive alongside its far more common successor.
Hearing pakhawaj played today offers a valuable link back to the tradition's older percussive layers, a reminder that even an instrument as familiar as tabla has its own considerable history stretching back further still. That history is easy to forget amid a tradition now so thoroughly associated with tabla's own familiar sound.