Correcting a Written Teental Kayda in Prescribed Notation
A candidate submits the first avartan of a Teental kayda in the prescribed notation, matra numbers written under the bols:
| dha dha dhin dhin | dha dha dhin dhin | dha dha tin tin | ta ta dhin dhin | | 1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 | 9 10 11 12 | 13 14 15 16 |
Above the matras the candidate has written X at 1, 2 at 5, 3 at 9 and 0 at 13. The Palta is written as eight bols per avartan with no vibhag bars. The second avartan repeats the same sixteen bols with the matra numbers running 1–16 again, and the candidate labels it 'dugun'. The closing tihai is written on a single line as twelve bols plus the note '×3'. In the viva the candidate says the khali is at 13 'because that is where the third clap goes', and that a tihai is 'any composition played three times'.
1. Identify every error in this notation and write the corrected first avartan with its marks.
Read the worked answer
Teental is 16 matras in four vibhags of 4: sam 1 (X), tali 5 (2), khali 9 (0), tali 13 (3). The candidate has the marks shifted by one vibhag.
Errors:
- Marks misplaced. X at 1 is right, but 2 belongs at 5 (not 3 at 9), 0 belongs at 9 (not 13), and 3 belongs at 13. The candidate has confused the order of the second and third vibhags' marks; a khali at 13 is wrong on both count and concept - khali is a light matra, not a clap.
- Bols wrong in vibhags 3 and 4. The theka is not four identical pairs; vibhag 3 turns to 'tin/tin/ta' and vibhag 4 ends back on 'dha'.
- Palta written without vibhag bars, so the reader cannot see where the tala's joints fall.
- 'Dugun' mislabelled. Sixteen bols with matras 1–16 is barabar, not dugun.
- Tihai notation incomplete - phrase boundaries and the sam on which it lands are not shown.
Correct first avartan:
| dha dhin dhin dha | dha dhin dhin dha | dha tin tin ta | ta dhin dhin dha | | 1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 | 9 10 11 12 | 13 14 15 16 | | X | 2 | 0 | 3 |
2. Explain how barabar, dugun and tigun are actually represented on the matra grid, and rewrite the 'dugun' avartan correctly.
Read the worked answer
The tala's grid does not change when the laya changes; what changes is how many bols occupy each matra.
- Barabar (ekgun): one bol per matra, 16 bols across 16 matras.
- Dugun: two bols per matra, or equivalently the same bols compressed into 8 matras, or written across 32 counted positions. In the prescribed system the cleanest practice is to keep matra numbers 1–16 and place two bols in each matra cell.
- Tigun: three bols per matra; it aligns with sam only every third avartan, which is why it is notated with the matra numbers still 1–16 but three bols per cell, and why a one-avartan tigun written without a note on alignment is ambiguous.
- Chaugun: four bols per matra, or the same 16 bols in 4 matras.
So the candidate's second avartan, if it really is dugun, must read:
| dha dhin | dhin dha | dha dhin | dhin dha | dha tin | tin ta | ta dhin | dhin dha | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | | X | | | | 2 | | | |
(That is, two bols per matra over eight matras, or the same pairs placed inside sixteen matra cells.) The point being tested: laya is a statement about bols-per-matra, not a decorative label.
3. The candidate says a tihai is 'any composition played three times'. Correct this and show how a tihai is notated so that it visibly ends on sam.
Read the worked answer
'Played three times' is only half the definition. A tihai is one phrase of fixed length, repeated three times, with the final stroke of the third repetition falling on sam (or on the agreed target matra). Repetition without arrival is just a repeated composition; there are also tihais of two repetitions (ada) and, in some repertoires, chauthai-style multiples, but the defining constraint is the arithmetic of arrival.
Notation method:
- Write the phrase once, bracket it, and count its matras - say 5 matras.
- Write 3 × 5 = 15, so the phrase must begin 15 matras before the target sam (i.e. on matra 2 of the previous avartan in Teental) for the last bol to land on 1.
- In the notation, show the three repetitions as three separate blocks with their starting matras labelled, and put the sam mark X directly under the final bol of the third block. A reader must be able to see the arrival without hearing it.
- Where the phrase is padded, mark the padding bols, since the padding is usually what was miscounted.
A written tihai that does not display where the three blocks start and where the third one ends is unmarkable, however well it sounds.