Dhadi (music)

Dhadi (Punjabi: ਢਾਡੀ (Gurmukhi), Dhādi), also spelled as Dhadhi, is one who sings ballads using Dhadd[1][2][3] and Sarangi,[4] the folk instruments of Punjab.

According to Kahn Singh Nabha's Mahan Kosh the definition of dhadhi is "One who sings ballads of warriors playing Dhadd".

[5] Dhadi refers both to a genre of Punjabi music and the performers who play it: a distinctly composed ensemble of ballad-singers.

After briefly sketching the long yet hazy background of the art, this article reconstructs its more certain and recent history so far as it can be gleaned from the oral accounts of living dhadi performers.

Taken with evidence of recordings—some of the Punjabi industry’s earliest—and the memories of older audience members, a picture is presented of the dhadi genre in its heyday of the early 20th century.

[2][4][8] Along with singing Gurbani, their songs came to deal with the tales of heroism and valour and was used to entertain as well as to fill the army with warrior's spirit.