Damau (also ''damaun'', ''dhamu'' or ''dhmuva'') is a single-headed drum instrument that is played extensively in the folk music of Himachal Pradesh and

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is usually played along with the larger drum, the

dhol Dhol () can refer to any one of a number of similar types of double-headed drum widely used, with regional variations, throughout the Indian subcontinent. Its range of distribution in Indian subcontinent primarily includes northern areas such ...

, according to the ancient oral treatise of '' Dhol Sagar'', which lists specific rhythm patterns for every occasion in

life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

, including christening,

wedding A wedding is a ceremony in which two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnicity, ethnicities, Race (human categorization), races, religions, Religious denomination, denominations, Cou ...

, religious festivals, folk drama and death rituals.Andrew Alter: ''Controlling Time in Epic Performances: An Examination of Mahābhārata Performance in the Central Himalayas and Indonesia''. Ethnomusicology Forum, Vol. 20, No. 1 ( 20th Celebratory Edition ) April 2011, pp. 57-78

References

Drums Indian musical instruments Asian percussion instruments Culture of Uttarakhand Folk music instruments {{Membranophone-instrument-stub