Checking a Teentaal swaralipi that starts on khali
A student submits a swaralipi of a 32-matra bandish in Teentaal. The mukhda is written starting on matra 9, which the student marks as khali. The student also marks 'sam' at matra 1 of the first written line, claims the composition spans three avartans, and states that at 60 bpm it will last 48 seconds. The notation shows the first line covering matras 9-16 and the second line covering 1-8, but the matra numbers for the second line are missing. The teacher has to return the paper with corrections before the practical exam, and must decide whether the student has made a counting error, a sam-placement error, or both. The class has been taught that Teentaal has 16 matras with tali on 1, 5 and 13 and khali on 9, and that a composition may begin on khali but must still resolve to sam.
1. Check the arithmetic: how many avartans and how many seconds at 60 bpm and at dugun? Identify the error.
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Teentaal has 16 matras, so 32 matras is exactly two avartans, not three. At 60 bpm one matra lasts one second, so 32 matras last 32 seconds, and dugun (two matras per beat) lasts 16 seconds. The student's 48 seconds corresponds to 48 matras, i.e. three avartans, so the duration claim is internally consistent with the wrong avartan count. The error is therefore not a mysterious tempo problem; it is a matra-count problem. The teacher should make the student write the cycle boundaries explicitly: avartan 1 = matras 1-16, avartan 2 = 17-32. Once the 32 matras are laid out, the 48-second claim collapses. The student should also be asked to state whether the bandish is 32 matras or 48 matras before any sam discussion, because sam placement cannot be checked until the total length is fixed.
2. Is it acceptable for the mukhda to begin on matra 9? Where are sam, tali and khali, and what has the student confused?
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Beginning on matra 9 is permissible in principle: a composition can start on khali, and some bandishes deliberately do so. The problem is labelling. In Teentaal, sam is matra 1, tali falls on 1, 5 and 13, and khali on 9. If the mukhda begins on 9, then matra 9 is the first matra of the composition, not the sam of the tala. The student has conflated 'first written matra' with 'sam'. With a 32-matra bandish starting on 9, the first line runs 9-16 (khali at 9, tali at 13), the second line runs 1-8 of the next avartan (tali at 1 and 5), and the sam of the tala arrives at matra 1 of the following avartan, after the bandish has completed. The notation must show that arrival, not place a sam label at the start of the mukhda.
3. How should the notation be laid out so that a tihai can be placed correctly?
Read the worked answer
Lay out two avartans as four vibhags of four matras each, numbering every matra. In the first avartan, mark 9 as khali and 13 as tali; in the second, mark 1 and 5 as tali. The mukhda occupies 9-16 and then 1-8, so the written order does not match the tala order unless the cycle numbers are shown. If a tihai is to end on sam, count backwards: three repetitions of four matras need 12 matras, so the tihai begins at matra 5 of the second avartan and runs 5-8, 9-12, 13-16, resolving on sam at the next matra 1. The teacher should require the student to write the tihai under the numbered matras, not as a separate unnumbered line. This makes the khali-to-tali path visible and prevents a tihai from landing on 9 by accident.