The 10 Pranas of Taal

The term Prana refers to the life force without which any living entity becomes lifeless. Ancient scholars have referred to the Ten Pranas of Taal which is compulsorily required in any Taal. The ancient text Sangeet Makarand by Narad mentions these Ten Pranas in the following Shloka

Ancient Taals followed these rules very strictly. Today, the Taals of Carnatic music follow these ten pranas. Hindustani Classical music uses a few of them.

Jagatamashyaha kaal – meaning the universe is based out of time. Creation, proliferation, and destruction are a part of the cosmos. These three are bound by time. Time is one and continuous. In music, time is confined. The time that it takes in gayan, vadan and nritya is known as kaal. In music time is given a rhythm using a laya. Laya makes matras and a group of matras make a taal. Any sthayi or antara of a geet or gat bound by the avartan of the Taal to which it is set in. There are various measurements of time from years to days to seconds.The text sangeet Makarand gives a detailed study of the unit of measurement of kala. The smallest unit is called a kshana or the time to pierce 100 lotus petals kept over one another using a needle. 

Bharata muni has referred to a different yard stick of time measurement. According to him a matra, basic unit, equals the time taken to pronounce five short letters. One laghu = 1 Matra. One Nimesh is the time taken to blink an eye.

The first five terms are called shukshma kaal and rest as Stool kaal. The second set of terms were used in taal for measurement of time.

The word Marg means way or path. A Marga characterizes different ways of rendering a Tala on the basis of elongating durations of the time units known as Kalaa. (Guru)

Usually a matra is the time for uttering 5 short syllables. When a taal is performed, the maarg is the duration of each matra in a taal. It is through Maarg that the divisions of Taal, Matra, order or tempo, thali, khali are known. 

There are four types of Maarg – dhruv Maarg, Chitra Maarg, Vaarthik Maarg, Dakshina Maarg.

There were three margas – Chitra, Vartika and Dakshina. Maarg was a way to govern the time in Kala. A Kala is usually 2 matras. But the matra will change according to the maarga. One akshara is the main count in a Taal.

In music, Kriya is the movement of the hands and the clapping to demonstrate a taal. This is still followed in Carnatic tradition and to some extent in Hindustani Classical Music. 

There are two types of kriya – Shashabdh or sounded and Nishabdh kriya or unsounded. The clapping using both the hands is known as sashabdh kriya. The swaying of the right hand for one matra is called nishabdh kriya. Natya Shastra has the descriptions of the hand movements for each matra of the talas.

Shashabd Kriya 

The clapping using both the hands while demonstrating a taal is Shashabd kriya. In Teen Taal, 1, 5,13 beats are thalis. This kriya is done is four ways

i. Dhruva - By snaping fingers 

ii. Samyak - Using left hand to clap on right

iii. Taal -Using right hand to clap on left

iv. Sannipat - Using both the hands to clap. 

Nishabd Kriya

This kriya uses the wave of right hand to count the matra in a taal. In Teen Taal, the 9th beat is a khali denoted by wave of hand. Nishabdh kriya is also of four types. 

i. Aapaav – raising the hand and closing the fingers 

ii. Nishkram – Hand downwards and opening the fingers

iii. Vikshesh – waving the fingers in the right side

iv. Pravesh – waving the fingers to the left or bringing the hand in its place and contracting the fingers 

There was also deshi kriyas – Dhruvaka which was a shashabd kriya and the rest were nishabd kriyas – Sarpini, Krishya, Padmini, Visarjitam, Vikshipta, Pataka, Patita.

i. Dhruvaka: Clap of hand with one palm facing upward and the other facing downward 

ii. Sarpini: moving the hand to left.

iii. Krushya: moving the hand from left to right.

iv. Padmini: moving the hand downwards with fingers down.

v. Visarjita: stretching the hand outward as in swinging.

vi. Vikshipta: folding of fingers.

vii. Pataka: moving the hand upward.

viii. Patita: moving the hand downwards with fingers pointing up

Just as how Hindustani classical music has the concept of Vibhag to show the form of the taal, the ancient taals had the concept of anga to show the form of the taal. Ang in a taal denotes a portion or division. The various divisions in a taal is known as anga denoted by the no of matras. Modern day taals usually have 2-6 vibhags. Just as every vibhag can have same or different no of matras, angas denote the no of matras in each portion. There are 8 angas in the ancient taal paddathi with a specific symbol.

That matra of a Taal from which the composition (geet or Gat) starts is called as graha. Compositions can begin from any matra of the Taal. There are four types of graha Sam graha, visham graha under which fall ateeth graha, anaagat graha.

Sangeet Darpan has descibed Graha in the following shloka

Sam Graha 

when the composition is started from the first beat of the Taal it is called sam graha 

Visham Graha 

When the composition is started from any beat other than the sam it is called visham graha.

Ateeth Graha

Ateeth means past. when the sam of composition is placed after the start of the Taal, it is called ateeth graha

Anaagat Graha

Anagat means not yet arrived. when the sam of compostion is placed before the sam of Taal, it is called anaagat graha. 

In todays parlance, when the sam of the bandish is placed after the sam of taal it is called ateeth grah. And when the sam of the bandish is placed before the sam of taal it is called anagat grah.

The term jaathi is commonly used to segregate or group based on certain characteristics. In Taal it refers to the gait of the tala.

Jaathi determines the no of matras in a vibhag and hence with the change in jaathi the structure and matra of the taals also change. 

Bharat muni had initially talked about Chatasra and Tisra jaati. The corresponding taals were chachatputa and chachaputa. Later on he made a khand of Chatasra jaathi and added tirsa to arrive at khand jaathi. The Khand jaati on addition with chatasra gives sankeerna jaati. There are five types of jaathi – chatasra, tisra, Mishra, khand, sankeerna.

In Taal shastra, that which determines the taals of the karnatic music, wherein the matras of laghu change based on it is known as jaathi. It was through Jaathi that various taals were formed by changing the number of matras in the vibhag. In the Carnatic tradition, jaathi refers to the no of matras of laghu was called jaathi.

In chatasra - 4, tisra - 3, Mishra - 7, khand – 5, sankeerna -9. On the basis of these five jaathis, the 35 taals of karnatic music is formed.  

Chatasra Jaathi

This was one of the basic jaathi as described by Bharat muni. The corresponding Taal was Chachchatputam. Gu+Gu+La+Pl. this taal had 4-4 aksharas in two parts. The first half was 2+2 and second half was 1+3. Scholars say chatrasra jaathi is 4 matras. This was considered Brahman varna.

Trayashra Jaathi 

This was one of the basic jaathi as described by Bharat muni. The corresponding Taal was Chaachaputam. (Gu+La+La+Gu). There are 3-3 akshaaras in two parts. The first half is 2+1 and the second is 1+2. Scholars say that trayashra jaathi is 3 matras. This was considered Shatriya varna.

Mishra Jaathi

When chatasra and Trayashra jaathi are mixed we get a new jaathi which is Mishra. The associated taal was Shatpitaputrak (Pl+La+Gu+Gu+La+Pl). the total matras were 12 which can be grouped as 3-3 four times or 4-4 three times. Later on, Mishra jaathi was considered as 4+3 = 7. Mishra Jaathi was considered as shudra varna. 

Khand Jaathi

After Mishra Jaathi, Khand Jaathi was made by dividing the first 4 matras by two and adding trayashra jaathi (4/2)+3 = 5. The division was not done on the 3 as it will result in 1.5 matra which will not be suitable for use. Khand Jaathi was considered as Vaishya varna. 

Sankeerna Jaathi

Sankeern in Sanskrit means mixed. The jaathi which is made of mixing the chatasra, tisra and khand, Mishra jaathi is sankeerna jaathi. After chatasra and trayasra jaathi, when there was a need for other taals, chatasra and trayasra were added to give Mishra jaathi (4+3 = 7). Later the 4 of the Mishra jaathi was divided or khanda which gave rise to Khand jaathi (2+3 = 5). Then later Chatasra jaathi was added to khand to give sankeerna jaathi (4+2+3 = 9). Sankeerna Jaathi was considered as Varna-Shankar

Kalaa is the mode of creating sub-species of talas but using multiples of angas constituting it. Ek Kala, DwiKala Chatushkala are the types of Kalaa. In dwikalaa. The anga in the tala will be double and in chatushkala it will be four times. The Kalaa or Guru will have their matra multiplied as 1, 2 , 4 giving matras 2, 4, 8.

In Sangeeta ratnakara, Kalaa is defined as below:

Dakshinascheti tatra syad dhravake maatrika kala

Shesheshu dve chatasroshtau kraman matra kala baved

The rest between two matras kriyas is laya. The speed or tempo of Taal is Laya. The time that it takes to go from one matra to another can vary in a Taal hence Laya also varies. In music there are three important layas. In music tempo is measured as Beats per minute or BPM 

Vilambit Laya

This tempo is very slow. The characteristic of this Laya is gambir. Masitkhani gat, bada khayal, dhrupad, Dhamar are sung in this Laya (less than 60 BPM)

Madhya Laya 

This tempo is medium. Chota khayal, razakhani gat is played or sung in this Laya. (between than 100-160 BPM)

Drut Laya 

This tempo is fast. The characteristic of this Laya is chanchal. The Laya is very bright. Jhaale, Tarana are played and sung in this tempo. (more than 160 BPM)

The Madhya laya was considered the praman laya and was twice the laya of vilambit and half the laya of drut. Today, this meaning of laya is not used. 

This term is closely related with Chhand of the poetry. When a poetic verse is read, certain rests are used to ensure uniformity of laya. In Taal shastra, the rules of using the Laya is known as yathi. There are five varieties of yathi.

Prastaar means expansion or spread out. It is a form of improvisation of the Taal. It is a sequential form of elaborating a Taal. When an avartan of any Taal is played many times, and the bols of the Taal are improvised in various forms and it is known as prastaar. Within this fall the following - Kayada, Tukda, Palta, Rela, Peshkara, Paran etc.

When the various angas and its kaal pramans are joined we get the total kaal Praman of the tala. Keeping this total kaal praman, the process of varying the angas within is called prastaar.. In each prastara an anga is simplified till all the matras are drutas. Just has how we get 5040 taans from the seven swars using prastaar, when matras upto 12 are used in prastaars we get many taals upto 65535 taals.