The Original Trance

A walk through the world’s oldest wind instrument with master and maker, Abhinav Deodhar and his Anandamide Didgeridoos

Much before we had the fanciest flutes and polished brass instruments, there was the didgeridoo which is believed to be the world’s oldest wind instrument. When you are in the soundscape of a didgeridoo, it is almost impossible to ignore the instrument’s impact and how it unapologetically just drags you into its trance without your permission! Although today, the didgeridoo finds its place in various genres, the circumstances around which it arose were completely different. Join me in walking through the grandeur of this instrument with master player and maker Abhinav Deodhar who has been crafting his own didgeridoos as ‘Anandamide’ and playing them all over the Himalayas and across the country.

The didgeridoo originated amongst the tribal in the northern regions of Australia. “Young 2-5 years old eucalyptus trees were eaten up by termites because the tree's core was soft. The termites would eat the core leaving the rest. The naturally hollowed tress was picked up aboriginal people and these were the first known didgeridoos,” Abhinav explained. As each log had a distinct shape of its own there was no specific shape or size to a didgeridoo. Each didgeridoo was roughly 3 to 12ft long depending on the size of the log - this length essentially defines the key of the instrument. Longer the instrument, lower its pitch or key and vice versa. Images of this instrument float around the internet with various tribal paintings on the exterior of the instrument but traditionally, there were no paintings on the instrument. Later, for decoration purposes, each instrument was painted differently to have its own unique identity.