Carnatic taals

 

 A brief introduction to Carnatic taals

The taal system prevailing in the southern Indian states are known as carnatic taals. In ancient times, there were about 108 taals in southern India.

Dhrub mathya rupkacha jhampa triput eb cha

Ath taal ektalashya saptatalang prakeettitah! 

Dhrub, Mathya Rupak, Jhampa triput, ath and ek taals are the main taals of southern India. Each one of them has 5 jatis. They are chatusra, tisra, khanda, mishra and sankeerna. This way total number of taals would be 7*5=35. 

In carnatic taals, first matra of each vibhag is taali. First matra is sam. Interestingly, khali never sits in the first matra in any of the taals in southern India. Instead of khali, bisarjitam is used. 

The bisarjitam is actually the show of the hand in different ways in the middle matra of a vibhag. It is of 3 types. 

a) Patank bisarjitam: Hand is lifted up to show khali

b) Krijay bisarjitam: Hand is lifted towards left to show khali

c) Sapini bisarjitam: Hand is lifted towards right to show khali

One taal named aditaal is very popular in carnatic music. This is nothing but triput taal of chatursa jati. 

Carnatic representation of Jhaptaal

As in carnatic taal, there should not be khali at the first matra of a vibhag, jhaptal in carnatic taal can be represented as below:

Dhi na | Dhi Dhi na tee na | Dhi Dhi na

X         | 2                           | 3

Interestingly, the vibhag symbol with khali at first matra is removed here.

You can try converting carnatic taal into hindustani in terms of notation. It will be an interesting exercise.