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Thalam Structure

Beat (Aksharam) | Laghu | Drtham | Beat cycle (Avarthanam)

Thalam is a description of a beat cycle structure. There are many different Thalams, each with a different number or arrangement of beats. But all Thalams have some basic properties in common. They are composed of equally spaced beats called Aksharams, which are subdivided into Maatraas. A full set of Aksharams that completes a beat cycle is called an Avarthanam. These cycles are performed in succession with no break (hence, cycle), and each line of a song corresponds to one Avarthanam or a multiple of Avarthanams.

Beat (Aksharam)

Each Aksharam in the Thalam has a count that is determined by the number of Maatraas within it. By default, Aksharams have four Maatraas, or four equally spaced subdivisions. The significance of this Maatraa becomes clear the more you listen: you might begin to hear four notes in each Aksharam.

Listen For example, in this Avarthanam, there are eight Aksharams, and each Aksharam exhibits four notes--one per Maatraa.

Even though the standard number of Maatraas is four, sometimes notes occur more quickly, creating multiples of four subdivisions within the Aksharam. These micro-subdivisions are not referred to as Maatraas, but rather Brihas. A Briha is any sequence of notes that occurs more quickly than the standard frequency of one-note-per-Maatraa.

Listen In this example Avarthanam of eight Aksharams, there is a Briha starting from the 3rd or 4th Maatraa of the first Aksharam and ending on the 1st or 2nd Maatraa of the second Aksharam. This Briha has two notes for each Maatraa, rather than the standard one. The rest of the Aksharams in the Avarthanam each have no more than one note per Maatraa. Usually, a line of music will have only a few Briha embellishments.

Laghu

Drtham

Beat cycle (Avarthanam)