In a description of an incident in what sjmaxq calls the Sepoy Revolution I saw the following:
"The beating of drums, the rattle of tomtoms,.."
Which surprised me a bit, as I thought the word was from
American aborigine (thought I was going to say Indian, didn't you ?) ceremonial musical percussion instrument.
So I tried to check this, starting with a dictionary definition.

You won't believe it, but I could not find a dictionary definition of this word! Dozens of sites about its use in software ads.

I still think it a doubtful choice to describe an Asian Indian percussion instrument. Comments, please.