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A Pathway to Knowledge
for forty days and nights. During the chilla, the disciple is expected to
practice, increasing the hours of practice to most of the day and night
as time goes on. During the chilla, Zakirji has visions; it is a time of
great self-awareness and knowledge. Upon reading Hart’s book, some
tabla students in North America and Europe have attempted to per-
form their own kind of chilla, albeit a shortened version without the
master’s knowledge.
The learning of tabla then necessitates a complete and total com-
mitment both to the instrument and to the master of the art form.
The instrument itself consists of two drums, the bayan, the left-hand
drum made of aluminum or copper, and the dayan–tabla, the right-
hand drum made of a variety of types of woods such as shisham or
rosewood. The tabla heads are generally made from goat or cow skin
with a gab (iron filings and rice paste combination) placed strategi-
cally in the center (dayan) or to the side (bayan) for optimal sound.
The tabla belongs to one of the most complex and intricate percus-
sive rhythmic systems in the world today, requiring the coordination
of both hands, with each finger playing a particular set of sounds or
bols. Bol, stemming from the Hindi verb bolna, meaning to speak, re-
fers to the strokes the fingers make on the tabla or the basic grammar
of the tabla. For every bol or stroke played on the tabla, there is a cor-
responding sound made by the voice. The bols are onomatopoeic syl-
lables used by tabla players as an aid for the memorization of compo-
sitions. Technically, they are sounds or basic units that, when strung
together, create phrases, and these phrases can be used to develop a
composition. For example, the bols ghe,re,na,ge (pronounced ghay,
ray, nah, ge) are frequently heard together as a phrase in all types of
compositions. In the Punjab school the bols te, ke, te are strung to-
gether to create the phrase terekete (tey rey key te) or tetekete.
Often, class may begin with the master voicing the bols, or the sounds
of the compositions, before actually playing. Very early on, I was told
that to really understand a composition one must be able to voice it,
remember it in the hands and the mind simultaneously. The knowl-
edge of recitation also depends upon the ability to count out the com-
position within a certain tal or rhythmic structure. Counting is shown
by using the thumb of the left hand as a marker, moving upward to
