History
The invention of the tabla is commonly attributed to the 13th century Indian musician Amir Khusrau. He supposedly split the mridangam or the pakhawaj in two. ('toda, tab bhi bola - tabla': 'When broke, it still spoke' - a fairly well known Hindi pun). However none of his writings on music mention the drum.
This explanation is unlikely, however, because there are Hindu temple carvings of double hand drums resembling tabla that date back to 500 BC.
Rebecca Stewart suggested that the tabla was most likely a product of experiments with existing drums such as pakhawaj, mridang, dholak and naqqara. The origins of tabla repertoire and technique may be found in all three and in physical structure there are also similar elements: the smaller pakhawaj head for the dayan, the naqqara kettledrum for the bayan, and the flexible use of the bass of the dholak.
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