Jori

The Jori also known as Panjabi Pakhawaj is an instrument which was created in the court of the Fifth Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji by two musicians of the court, Sata & Balwand.

The Jori emerged from the Mardang which is a one barrel drum, they cut this one piece instrument into two separate pieces to create the Jori which means 'pair'.

The sound generated from this instrument is much louder and deeper to that of tabla. If you think about the atmosphere 300 years ago before microphones and technology existed, you would have thousands of people sitting to listen to kirtan outdoors, therefore you will need versatile instruments which carry the sound. The Jori is a prime example of the acoustic art required to play in an outdoor sitting without technical aids, sadly this instrument is not commonly used in the modern day sittings to sing Kirtan.

The world famous Tabla evolved from the Jori during the microphone era and was commonly used to accompany playback singing as it has a considerably softer sound to that of the Jori.

The Jori requires the use of fresh dough on the bass drum (dhama) and the treble drum (dhaiya) has ink (shahee) on the skin. To apply and remove fresh dough for each sitting required a lot more effort and maintenance, therefore the table removed this effort as both drums for the tabla have ink on the skin. The material used to make the bass drum of tabla is metal, where for the Jori both drums are made of Dhunn wood which is classed as the best quality wood for musical instruments.

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