Abstract:
This thesis describes the vernacular tradition of the dholki, a common wedding event
with song and singing. The dholki is framed in a context of a male-dominated religious
society and has the propensity to be utilized as a flexible vehicle for the dissemination of
religious and spiritual thought, worship, or rulings. The process of writing this thesis
started with ethnographic fieldwork in Lahore in the summer of 2021, where the author
spoke to a variety of women at the Bibi Pak Daman shrine. This thesis places the dholki
within the study of vernacular tradition in the Punjab and broader South Asia. Through a
deconstruction of the event, its context, and the songs and beats that women utilize during
the event, I argue that the dholki provides a flexible vehicle through which women are
able to disseminate, adapt, permeate, and transform religiosity and spirituality.
