Indian Music-5

Tala :The Philosophy of Time

Raga and Tala are the two pillers on which our classical music is built. Tala comes from the Sanskrit word Tal, which means to strike with the palms. This was the first and most basic way in which a man created beats.

There is a great deal of philosophy behind the art of Tala. Our ancient musical masters took time itself,and classified it in two ways:

Clock time or Real Time : For everyday  life ,time has to be measured.A clock  for example divides time into hours,minutes and seconds.This helps us to understand time, and run our daily lives.

Psychological time: When we are happy , times seems to move very fast . When we are sad or bored time seems to drag on. 

So depending on person’s mental state ,time takes on different meaning. The critical thing is that we can not control these two forms of time. A clock will keep on ticking , and we can not control our happyness or boredom. Tala is the great device through which a human being can control time . A musician or a singer can take a period of time ,and divide it up in many ways. How he does it is his choice . He can decide when to begin and when to end.He is in control. The weapon he used to control time is the mantra or stoke .The  gap between two mantras is a the tempo .By varying this , he creates different patterns and so different Talas.  According to legends , there are 108 possible Talas - equal to the number of dances created by lord Shiva. Modern day classical music use about 15.

              

Rythm artists spend endless years mastering the art of  Tala and its intricacies . So next time you see one , look at him with respect. He has conquered the world of time.

Nisheeth Ranjan

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