The Sound Of Durga Puja: Dhak, Dhunuchi Naach And Music Of Bengal’s Grand Festival

Durga Puja arrives like percussion. First a distant pulse, then an all-encompassing roar. In Kolkata’s lanes and in village squares across Bengal, the festival is less a calendar entry than a choreography of sound: layered, ritualised and insistently alive. The beats of the dhak, the flicker of incense in dhunuchi naach, the spectacle of street theatre and the hush of bhajans together turn a religious observance into a public, sonic commons where devotion and performance are indistinguishable.

The festival’s deep roots help explain why music and movement are not ornaments but structural: Durga Puja in Bengal evolved from household and elite worship into mass public celebration over centuries, anchored in local ritual practice and popular performance traditions. While folk accounts point to early zamindar-sponsored observances from the 16th–17th centuries, the ritual vocabulary—drums, incense, processional theatre—was already in motion across rural Bengal long before modern pandals made the festival a metropolis-wide pageant.

The Drum That Summons: Dhak As Ritual Heartbeat

The dhak is more than percussion; it is the festival’s mnemonic. This large, double-headed drum, swung on a strap and struck with sticks, emits a thunderous, rhythmically complex sound that marks every turning point of the puja — from the pre-dawn arati to the last procession towards the immersion. The dhak’s timbre has been described as indispensable to Durga Puja’s atmosphere: it summons, excites, and binds. As an instrument of medieval origin popularised in eastern India, the dhak is played by dhakis whose craft and vocation are traditionally hereditary, making the instrument a living link across generations.

Beyond its sonic role, the dhak is social: dhaki troupes arrive at pandals in formation, setting tempo and mood. Their rhythms cue everything from priestly rites to the spontaneous dancing of onlookers, turning spectators into participants. In recent years, conversations about preserving dhaki craft have surfaced as urbanisation and changing tastes threaten this lineage—a reminder that the festival’s soundscape depends on human skill as much as ritual intent.

Fire, Scent And Motion: Dhunuchi Naach, Dance-Drama And Devotional Voice

If the dhak is the festival’s skeleton, dhunuchi naach is its flame. Dancers hold a curved earthen censer (dhunuchi) containing smouldering coconut husk and incense, and move to the drum’s pulse in a trance-like aarti. The dance is at once devotional and theatrical: the dancer’s steps, the tilt of smoke, the wreathing incense create a physical offering.

Complementing dhunuchi naach are longer strains of popular performance — folk dance-dramas and jatra-style enactments—that have long accompanied religious festivals in Bengal. Jatra, a rustic, high-energy theatre form combining song, music and exaggerated acting, migrated from processional roots into seasonal stages, shaping how stories of gods and heroes are told during the puja season. These performative strands allow communities to rehearse cultural memory aloud: myth retold through music, satire, and spectacle.

Devotional music like kirtan, bhajan and the Shyama-sangeet tradition supplies the festival’s interior voice. Poets and composers such as Ramprasad Sen, whose 18th-century Shyama-sangeet are still sung in puja circles, contributed a lyrical vocabulary of intimacy and yearning toward the goddess that sits alongside the thunder of drums. These songs balance the outer frenzy with private feeling; together, the loud and the hushed compose Durga Puja’s tonal architecture.

Durga Puja’s soundscape is therefore an ecology: instrument makers and dhakis, clay-modellers and priest-musicians, amateur drummers and costume-stitchers all contribute to an aural and visual whole. The festival is local and theatrical at once—it stages community identity in a way few other public rituals do. UNESCO’s recognition of Kolkata’s Durga Puja as an expression of intangible cultural heritage highlighted this living complexity, highlighting how artistic labour and communal participation sustain a tradition that is both religious devotion and public performance.

As modernity reshapes urban life, the sound of Durga Puja negotiates continuity and change. Electronic amplifiers and fusion bands sometimes enter the mix; experimental dhak compositions find traction with younger players. Yet many insist that the festival’s core remains tactile and corporeal: smoke in the eyes, the sting of drumbeats, the communal pulse of feet on the road. Those elemental sensations are what make Durga Puja not just a sight to behold but an experience to be felt—loud, rhythmic and indelible.

In the end, the festival’s music and movement perform a basic social alchemy: they turn individual devotion into collective ecstasy, private songs into shared memory, and a mythic victory into a yearly, neighbourhood-wide celebration. When the last beats fade and the clay idol slips beneath the water on Vijayadashami, the echo of the dhak carries the promise of return—and of rhythms that will call everyone back, year after year.

FAQs

1. What are the main rituals and traditions of Durga Puja in Kolkata?
Durga Puja in Kolkata is marked by five main days—Shashthi to Dashami. Key rituals include Bodhon (invoking the Goddess), Sandhi Puja (performed at the juncture of Ashtami and Navami), Kumari Puja (worshipping young girls as the Goddess), Sindur Khela (married women smearing vermillion), and the immersion of idols on Dashami. These rituals combine devotion, artistry, and community celebration.

2. How is the dhunuchi naach performed and why is it important?
Dhunuchi naach is a traditional dance performed with incense-filled clay pots called dhunuchis. Participants dance to the rhythm of the dhak (traditional drum) during Aarti. It is both a devotional offering to Goddess Durga and a spectacular visual element of the festival, symbolising energy, devotion, and communal participation.

3. What folk dance-drama performances are popular during Durga Puja?
Durga Puja often features traditional Bengali folk theatre like Jatra and Raslila performances. These dramatic enactments depict stories from the Devi Mahatmya, Ramayana, or regional folklore, adding a cultural narrative layer to the festival and keeping classical performance arts alive in modern celebrations.

4. When is Durga Puja 2025 in Kolkata and how long does it last?
In 2025, Durga Puja will be celebrated from September 28 to October 2. The festival spans five main days, with preparatory events starting earlier, including the unveiling of artistic pandals, cultural programs, and community gatherings.

5. Where can visitors experience the best music, pandals, and cultural events during Durga Puja?
Kolkata offers hundreds of thematic pandals across neighbourhoods. Top destinations include Lalbazar, Kumartuli, College Square, and Ballygunge. Visitors can enjoy dhak beats, dhunuchi performances, classical and contemporary music, and food stalls offering Bengali delicacies, making it a complete cultural immersion.