Tala System and the Seven Alankaras
The building blocks
Three angas make every tala: anudruta (1 akshara, a bare beat), druta (2 aksharas, beat plus one finger count) and laghu (variable, shown by a beat plus finger counts). Laghu length depends on jati: tisra 3, chatusra 4, khanda 5, misra 7, sankeerna 9.
The seven talas
- Dhruva: laghu, druta, laghu, laghu
- Matya: laghu, druta, laghu
- Rupaka: druta, laghu
- Jhampa: laghu, anudruta, druta
- Triputa: laghu, druta, druta
- Ata: laghu, laghu, druta, druta
- Eka: laghu only
Seven talas times five jatis give 35; multiplying by five gatis (nadai) gives 175. Adi tala is chatusra jati triputa, eight aksharas. The seven alankaras are the first tala exercises, all set in Mayamalavagowla, one in each of the seven talas.
Worked example
Find the length of khanda jati triputa. Reasoning: triputa is laghu, druta, druta. Khanda jati makes the laghu five aksharas, each druta two. So 5 + 2 + 2 = 9 aksharas per avarta. In chatusra nadai each akshara splits into four matras, giving 36 matras. That arithmetic is exactly what the examiner wants shown, not guessed.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing Rupaka as laghu followed by druta; in Carnatic music it is druta then laghu.
- Confusing jati (which fixes the laghu) with gati (which subdivides each akshara).
- Counting anudruta as two aksharas.
- Saying Adi tala has seven aksharas instead of eight.