Module 5: Tala fundamentals · Lesson 2

Angas and hand actions

◐ Confidence: medium Last verified: 12 Oct 2026

Sections of a cycle

A tala is built from sections called angas . Three are in common use:

The laghu is the only one that changes its length, according to the Jati of the tala (explained in the next lesson). When people write a tala as a formula, they write the number of beats after the I: for example “I4” is a laghu of four beats.

Hand actions: kriya

The hand actions used to keep tala are kriyas . Some make a sound and some are silent:

• Sasabda kriya (with sound): a clap or a tap of the palm;
• Nishabda kriya (silent): a count on the fingers, or a wave of the hand.

In a laghu, the first beat is the clap and the remaining beats are counted off on the fingers. In a drutam, the clap is followed by a second action, which sources describe in different ways (see the box below).

Adi tala, drawn out

​Adi tala is written I4 O O: one laghu of four beats and two drutams of two beats each, eight beats in total. The diagram shows each section, with the highlighted box at the start of each:

Read it as: clap and three finger counts, clap and wave, clap and wave. Then the cycle starts again.

Press play to see the cycle move beat by beat. Turn sound on with the speaker button at the top right if you also want to hear the clicks.

Another example: Rupaka tala

Rupaka tala with a four-beat laghu is written O I4: a drutam first, then a laghu, six beats in total.

A tala is a formula

Once you know the three angas, a tala is simply a recipe. “Laghu, drutam, drutam” is Adi tala; “drutam, laghu” is Rupaka tala. The next lesson shows how a handful of recipes produces a whole family of talas.