Module 6: Musical forms · Lesson 2

Kriti and kirtana

◐ Confidence: medium Last verified: 12 Oct 2026

The kriti: the backbone of the concert

The Kriti is the main composition form in a Carnatic concert. Most kritis are devotional songs, often addressed to a god or goddess, and it is the form in which the Trinity composed most of their music. A kriti is sometimes described as the backbone of the concert, because the other items are arranged around the kritis.

The sections of a kriti

A kriti usually has three sections:

1. the Pallavi , which works like a refrain and returns throughout the piece;
2. the Anupallavi , the second section;
3. the Charanam , the last and longest section, which often borrows melody from the earlier parts and traditionally ends with the composer’s signature, the Mudra .

The mudra is worked into the words. It might be a name of the god being praised or the composer’s own pen name. Dikshitar’s mudra “Guruguha” and Swati Tirunal’s “Padmanabha” are examples.

Variations in structure

• Some kritis have a passage of notes only, a Chittaswaram , between the anupallavi and the charanam.
• Some have no separate anupallavi. The section that follows the pallavi is then called a Samashti charanam .
• The kriti’s first line is usually presented in a series of planned melodic variations, called sangatis . These are part of the composition and are not made up on the spot, in contrast to improvisation.

The kirtana

The Kirtana is also a devotional song, in which the words take the lead. Its melody is typically simple and repeats for each verse, and it generally has few or no sangatis. A school-board textbook (NIOS) describes the kirtana as the older form (it dates the term to the later 14th century and the Tallapaka composers), usually with several charanams and a dispensable anupallavi, and adds that a kriti, unlike a kirtana, need not be sacred.

Why composers matter here

When a performer sings a kriti they are performing something fixed by a composer: the notes, the words and the structure are handed down. What belongs to the performer is the expression, the pace and the improvisation that may be added around it, such as Niraval and Kalpanaswara , described in the manodharma lesson.

You will meet the composers themselves in the next module. In the raga and tala modules you will see which kritis are associated with each raga and tala, by title only.