Here is the 'before' picture of an other-wise lovely sitar tabli I was asked to repair. The tumba at the tail-piece was shattered also.
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There are a few factors that contributed to this damage (other than some gorilla at Delta Airlines drop-kicking it out of the plane).
There's nothing wrong with a tabli that's a bit on the thin-side* but in this case it's one of the reasons it shattered the way it did. (*thin or thick is not the whole picture - it's also about wood-density, but that's for another post)
The real problem with this instrument was that the tabli/tumba joint was twisted. The tabli was a bit warped and the surface to which it was glued was not an even plain. When it was glued on originally, it was subjected to a lot of tight binding to force it into place (as is common). With all that potential-energy the first major bump and - BANG!
This forcing of a poor joint also contributes to poor or uneven sound. The process of putting it all back together properly usually improves the sound of the instrument through a bit of "de-damping" and evening-out of the stresses on the tabli.
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And here's the "after" along with a nice comment from the owner.
It is all well now, and sounds beautiful.

Here are some close-up pictures of the top of one of my 'Dhrupad Tamburas' showing the Peghed® planetary pegs installed. They work quite smoothly, eliminating the need for fine-tuning beads and they never slip. Note that I have used cello 'grips' on this particular instrument  but these are not cello-style pegs. Cello pegs would have the string winding in the middle. Chuck Heron at Pegheds has a different kind of peg ("akonting") which allows the winding on the outside of the neck like this. So they are great for Indian instruments. There are some other pictures of the Dhrupad Tambura here.
Click on the pictures below to make them bigger and see more info -