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Laya Lahiri : Adi Talam Chathusra Nadai


Welcome back to the next episode of 'Laya Lahari'.   In this episode, Suri explains the most common Adi Talam - Chathusra Nadai and also plays a small sample for us in the Mridangam.

A word about 'Nadai' - Nadai is the number of aksharas or counts present in a single beat of a tala.  For eg., in adi tala, each beat normally is composed of 4 aksharas, so the total count for the 8 beats would be 32.   The most common nadai in adi tala is the chathusra nadai and hence Suri has begun his demonstrations from there.   We will move on to other nadais in aid tala in the weeks to come, do stay tuned.


Laya Lahiri section discusses the fundamentals of rhythm or laya, which forms an integral part of Carnatic music. Vidwan Thillaisthanam R. Suriyanarayanan explains the common and 'must-know' aspects of laya through his mridangam demonstrations. (Explanations in Tamil) This is by no means exhaustive but we hope this would be a good beginner's guide for rasikas to get started with percussion in Carnatic music.