Entangled Drum Histories

Friction, Embodiment, and the Making of Religious Sound in North India

Abstract

This paper examines the historical and performative entanglements between tablā, the dominant percussion instrument of North India, and jorī, a paired drum preserved within the Nāmdhārī Sikh community of Punjab. While previous studies have treated these instruments in terms of their historical origins or musical functions, this study argues that their relationship is best understood through forms of frictional entanglement, in which bodily technique, material conditions, aesthetic orientations, and religious practice do not align but actively interfere with one another.

Drawing on long-term engagement as a performer, ethnographic fieldwork among Nāmdhārī musicians, and historical analysis, the paper demonstrates that the transition between tablā and jorī is not seamless but structured by multiple forms of resistance. Techniques cultivated in one tradition do not transfer smoothly to the other, revealing the limits of embodied musical knowledge. More broadly, the differences between these instruments produce distinct sonic and temporal orientations that shape divergent modes of musical and religious experience.

By foregrounding these layered forms of friction, the article reconceptualizes entanglement not as harmonious interconnectedness but as a dynamic process of constraint, interference, and transformation. Rather than treating percussion instruments as passive tools, this paper argues that they actively shape religious subjectivity and sonic worlds in North India.