Dhakis take centre stage in Hyderabad

Dhakis play traditional drums to usher in Durga Puja celebrations in Hyderabad.

Dhakis, the traditional drummers from Bengal are at the heart of the five-day Durga Puja festivities nationwide and those from Kolkata play an integral part of the Bengali festivities in Hyderabad. This year is significant in that women dhakis take centre stage at the celebrations organised by the Bangiya Sanskritik Sangha at Keyes High School. Arriving on Chaturthi — the fourth day of Navratri — the dhakis begin to play from Panchami, the next day.

Hailing from humble families, the men/women from different professions, including students and homemakers, reconnect with their roots to usher in the festivities. “It is an inherited skill, passed down generations,” says Krishnendu Roy, general secretary of Utsab Cultural Association which organises celebrations at the National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management (NITHM) in Gachibowli.

Wearing traditional dhutis (dhotis) and bright, short kurtas, the dhakis carry dhaks decorated with feathers and play different rhythms during rituals such as aarti, bodhon and nabapatrika.

The dhakis are so important that they are booked during the monsoons in August itself, Krishnendu informs. “Durga Puja celebrations are incomplete without the sound of a dhak; it makes us nostalgic,” he says, adding, “Some of our friends in the US and UK can’t fly in dhakis, so they learn to play dhak to get into the festive mood.”

Bhabatarini Mahila Dhaki Sampraday leads the festivities at Keyes High School in Secunderabad. The ten women from the 30-member all-women group are on their first visit to Hyderabad to play dhak.

Bhabatarini is another name for Goddess Durga/Parbati and Kali in Dakshineswar Kali temple, informs Atin Choudhury of Bangiya Sanskritik Sangha. With a mix of students and homemakers, the group’s key members are Karuna Das, Tisha Das and Tulsi Singha, led by Dipa Das, who hails from Maslandapur, a town near Habra in West Bengal.

The group was formed in 2014 when a professional dhaki, Gokul Chandra Das, saw girls play the saxophone and other musical instruments on the streets of USA. He motivated his younger brother Samir Das, also a dhaki, to help form an all-women group. They trained Samir’s daughter Dipa , then in Class 9. She is now a graduate.