Music and instruments

Dhimsa is danced to live music, always. The chain follows the drummers, and a good drummer can pull a tired line back to full speed with one change of pattern.

Illustration of tribal instruments on a woven mat: a barrel drum, a flat frame drum, a curved horn and small bells — The Dhimsa ensemble: drums, horn and bells on a woven mat. (Illustration)

The instruments

Tudumu (thudumu) — the big drum whose deep beat is the dance's heartbeat; often played in pairs.
Dappu — the flat frame drum, sharp and fast, carrying the intricate top rhythm.
Mori — a wind instrument (a horn) whose piercing melodic line rides above the drums; the most recognisable sound of a Dhimsa performance after the drums themselves.
Kiridi and gilka — smaller percussion that thickens the texture.
Jodukommulu — paired horn clappers, now rarer, recorded in older accounts.

The players usually stand at the centre or edge of the circle, so the sound sits inside the dance rather than in front of it. There is no amplification in the village form; at staged events the drummers are simply multiplied — the Bhogapuram record performance used massed dappu, mori and tudumu players to reach 13,000 dancers.

The songs

Many varieties are sung as well as drummed, in the tribes' own tongues and in the local Odia- and Telugu-influenced dialects of the border hills. The commonest structure is call-and-response: a leader sings a line, the chain answers, and the exchange keeps time as reliably as any drum. In the Gunderi (Usku) variety the call-and-response happens between the men and women themselves — the dance is literally a conversation.

The lyrics stay close to home: planting and harvest, forest and weather, courtship and marriage, the deity of the village. Like the steps, the songs are a record of daily life set in motion.

Last updated: 2026-08-04