The dhol and the Taso
P a n ta l e a o F e r n a n d e s
W
hether it is the sound of the heartbeat which an unborn babe hears or the beat of a drum, the rhythm connects with humans easily. And when they are played by vazanteirs (traditional temple musicians), the effect is even more haunting as the playing skills emerge from their bloodline. Dilip Mohan Poinginkar, is one such vazanteirs who is adept at the dhol and the taso (both percussion instruments) at the temples in Poinguinim, be it Pursuram temple of the Betal temple. He seems to mesmerise the crowd with his beats which he churns out with the help of a couple of cane sticks and the drums. But his skills do not end here. He is also one of the few artisans who can make the dhol and the taso in the same traditional style used hundreds of years, using wood and goat-skin as the main elements. In fact his taso which is more than a hundred years old once belonged to his grandfather, then his father before being inherited by him. He explains, “This wooden taso is not available in the market and has to be made at home. It consists of three parts; the leather or the beating surface, the wooden support structure and the strings which hold the taso together besides
being used for tuning. The dhol also consists of the wooden barrel and the leather beating surfaces.” He brings out a previously cleaned and dried goat skin. With the help of a glass shard, he patiently goes about shaving the fur. “One has to be very careful not to puncture the skin with the glass shard which will render it useless,” he says. “For the taso, we prefer a female goat skin as being thin, it produces the right sound. Male goats being thick-skinned, their skins are used for the dholl because of its bass sound,” he enlightens further. For the dhol, the leather is stretched on cane rings while for the taso, iron rings are used. For the body, the dhol uses a tree trunk of suitable size is hollowed our by the carpenter while the body of the taso is made up of bowl like structure and three legs made out of wood. The assembly of both the percussion instruments is independent of nails or screws and is held together by the rope. However stringing these pieces together takes a lot of skill and practiced patience. After completing the tedious task, Dilip proudly takes two thin canes and beats out a rhythm on the taso and on the dhol, adjusting the rope to produce the right sound.
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Monsoon Issue 2010? •? Planet-goa? 31