Varanasi Tabla Drum Craft Cooperative Uttar Pradesh

Varanasi in the Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh is one of the foremost centres of tabla manufacture, producing the paired membrane-and-metal drums that form the rhythmic backbone of Hindustani classical music, film music, and religious kirtan. Tabla makers from the Dhari Muslim community in Varanasi specialise in stretching goatskin membranes on cast brass and copper shells (dagga and tabla) to precise pitch specifications using leather lacing and hammer tuning. The tabla makers cooperative in Varanasi Cantonment area supplies instruments to musicians, music schools, and export houses for markets in the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan. Master tabla craftsmen tune instruments to precise pitch in relation to the tabla companion bayan drum. The production of syahi — the black paste circle applied to the drumhead centre to adjust resonance — is a closely guarded craft secret within tabla-making families. Varanasi is also a centre of sitar, sarod, and shehnai manufacture alongside tabla.