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Suladi Sapta Tala · 14 aksharas

Khanda-jati Ata (Ata tala)

Also called: Ata tala, Khanda Ata

Confidence: high Last verified:

Structure

I5 I5 O O: 14 aksharas in one cycle.

I1beat22334455I1beat22334455O1beat2waveO1beat2wave
14 aksharas. I = laghu, O = drutam, U = anudrutam. Highlighted box = the beat that starts each anga.
  1. 1 beat
  2. 2 2
  3. 3 3
  4. 4 4
  5. 5 5
  6. 6 beat
  7. 7 2
  8. 8 3
  9. 9 4
  10. 10 5
  11. 11 beat
  12. 12 wave
  13. 13 beat
  14. 14 wave

Computed tones, evenly spaced. Real singing uses gamakas and may tune notes slightly differently.

Explanation

Khanda-jati Ata is one of the 35 talas of the Suladi Sapta Tala scheme. Its pattern is the Ata tala formula (I5 I5 O O), and the khanda Jati makes each Laghu 5 beats long. That gives 14 aksharas in one Avarta .

How it is counted: A clap and four finger counts, a clap and four finger counts, a clap and a wave, a clap and a wave.

Also known as Ata tala.

The totals of all 35 talas were compared with three published sources (see "How this was checked").

How it is counted

A clap and four finger counts, a clap and four finger counts, a clap and a wave, a clap and a wave. That is 14 aksharas in all. A laghu is a clap followed by finger counts (here 4), a drutam is a clap followed by a wave, and an anudrutam is a single clap.

A tala's beats can each be split into 3, 4, 5, 7 or 9 parts (the nadai; 4 is the usual). For this tala that makes 42 parts per cycle in tisra nadai, 56 parts per cycle in chatusra nadai, 70 parts per cycle in khanda nadai, 98 parts per cycle in misra nadai, 126 parts per cycle in sankirna nadai.

Where it is used

  • Wikipedia says a large share of varnams are set to this tala.
  • 211 songs on this site's raga pages are in this tala, for example: Intu Ninna (Purandara Dasa, raga Kharaharapriya); Indumukhi (Swati Tirunal, raga Dheerasankarabharanam); Shankari Shankari (Syama Sastri, raga Mechakalyani); Kattabeku (Purandara Dasa, raga Ahiri); Varayamasurami (Swati Tirunal, raga Ahiri); Akka Ettana (Purandara Dasa, raga Anandabhairavi).

Ragas with the most songs in this tala: Kamavardhini (27), Mechakalyani (24), Anandabhairavi (21), Mohanam (21), Kambhoji (16), Kedaragowla (16), Madhyamavathi (13), Bilahari (11), Mukhari (11), Arabhi (8), Bhairavi (8), Dhanyasi (7).

How likely you are to meet it

●○○ (rating 1 of 3: 1 = met very often)

Rating 1 of 3 (editorial, a rough guide to how often you are likely to meet this tala): 211 of the songs listed on this site's raga pages (taken from karnatik.com) are in it. A 1 means met very often (100 or more) and 3 means met rarely (fewer than 10). It says nothing about how hard the tala is to keep, which depends on speed and on the song.

Related talas

How this was checked

  • Sources agree: Khanda-jati Ata has the structure I5 I5 O O and 14 aksharas. Sources: Tala System; Tala (music). Generated from the anga formula and the jati, then compared with the formula printed for it in Online Bharatanatyam's table and the total printed for it in Wikipedia's matrix. Both match.
  • Partly agree: A laghu is a clap and finger counts, a drutam a clap and a wave, an anudrutam a single clap. Sources: Talas - The Sapta Tala System; Tala (music). The two sources agree on the claps and finger counts; they describe the second beat of the drutam differently (a wave, or a second clap with the palm up).

References for this page

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