Editing Calabash (section)

===India===
The calabash is used as a resonator in many string instruments in India. Instruments that look like guitars are made of wood, but can have a calabash resonator at the end of the strings table, called ''toomba''. The ''[[sitar]]'', the ''[[surbahar]]'', the ''[[tanpura]]'' (north of India, ''tambura'' south of India), may have a ''toomba''. In some cases, the ''toomba'' may not be functional, but if the instrument is large, it is retained because of its balance function, which is the case of the ''[[Saraswati veena]]''. Other instruments like ''[[rudra veena]]'' and ''[[vichitra veena]]'' have two large calabash resonators at both ends of the strings table. The instrument, Gopichand used by the Baul singers of Bengal is made out of calabash. The practice is also common among [[Buddhist]] and [[Jain]] sages.<ref>{{cite web
| url         = http://www.asianart.com/articles/landsberg/index.html
| date        = 4 February 2000
| title       = Kanailal and Brother, Calcutta: The History of an Indian Musical Instrument Maker
| first       = Steven
| last        = Landsberg
}}</ref>

These ''toombas'' are made of dried calabash gourds, using special cultivars that were originally imported from Africa and Madagascar. They are mostly grown in [[Bengal]] and near [[Miraj]], [[Maharashtra]]. These gourds are valuable items and they are carefully tended; for example, they are sometimes given injections to stop worms and insects from making holes in them while they are drying.

<gallery>
File:Deutsches Museum (121283169).jpg|''[[Sitars]]'' and one ''rudra veena'' (bottom right)
File:Sitar3.jpg|Sitar with resonator made from a bottle gourd.<ref>{{cite web|via=Small Encyclopedia of Indian Instruments at India-instruments.de|lang=de|url=http://www.india-instruments.de/instrumente/instrumentenlexikon/sitar.html|url-status=dead|date=2001|last=Kasliwal|first=Suneera|title=Classical Musical Instruments - Sitar|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140319031459/http://www.india-instruments.de/instrumente/instrumentenlexikon/sitar.html |archive-date=19 March 2014}}</ref> ''[[Surbahar]]'' is similar but larger and with lower sounds (something like a bass ''sitar'')<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ashokpathak.com/?page_id=124 | url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925121534/http://ashokpathak.com/?page_id=124 | archive-date=25 September 2022 | website=Pt. Ashok Pathak | title=Dhrupad Surbahar }}</ref>
File:Srivani veena.jpg|[[Saraswati veena]], the calabash resonator is not always functional but it is kept in place because of the balancing effect.<ref name="veena para mi me estas macaneando">{{cite web |url=http://www.buckinghammusic.com/veena/veena.html |url-status=usurped |title=Veena, Saraswati Veena, Rudra Veena and Vichitra Veena |access-date=2014-03-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140320141928/http://www.buckinghammusic.com/veena/veena.html |archive-date=20 March 2014}}</ref>
File:Asad Ali Khan.jpg|Rudra veena is a large plucked [[string instrument]] used in [[Hindustani classical music]]. One of the major types of ''[[veena]]'' played in Indian classical music, it has two calabash gourd resonators.<ref name="veena para mi me estas macaneando" /> The ''[[vichitra veena]]'', also with two large resonators, is a similar instrument.
File:Ektara player 2.jpg|[[Ektara]] (one string) resonator made from a calabash gourd
File:Shubha Mudgal in playing the Tanpura (2527339532).jpg|The ''tambura'' or ''[[tanpura]]'' may have a ''toomba'' (although not in this picture), a resonator made of calabash at the end of the strings table.<ref>{{cite web|website=Daly Music|url-status=dead |url=http://www.dalymusic.com/tanpura-tambura-indian-musical-instrument/|archive-date=31 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231010651/http://www.dalymusic.com/tanpura-tambura-indian-musical-instrument/|title=Tambura/tanpura}}</ref>
</gallery>

[[Hindu]] ascetics (''[[sadhu]]'') traditionally use a dried gourd vessel called the ''[[kamandalu]]''. The juice of a bottle gourd is considered to have medicinal properties and be very healthy (see juice toxicity above).

In parts of India a dried, unpunctured gourd is used as a float (called ''surai-kuduvai'' in Tamil) to help people learn to swim in rural areas.