How is the tabla different from other drums?

A tabla drum has a ring on the bottom for balancing the instrument and it has small wooden blocks for tuning the drum. A tabla drum is actually made up of two drums – the bayan (small spherical left hand drum) and the dayan (right hand drum). The tabla drum is different from a lot of other drums because it is played using the hands.

There are other drums that are played using hands but I think they are generally tuned by turning the lugs on the rims whereas the tabla is tuned using a small hammer.