Today morning I decided I wanted to understand a little about this tala. One has heard of it and it's complexity. I knew it was the longest tala in Carnatic music and heard some strange references to things like Guru, Plutam etc in this context. But apart from that I was totally clueless.
I started with Vasantmadhavi's book The Theory of Music and went on to two Youtube videos, a demo by Hemanth Lakshman and Guru Bharadwaaj's online seminar on the same.
This tala is depicted as follows
S S I S' I S O O
S S I S' I S' S I I +
I have intentionally depicted it in 2 lines with the spacing between angas since it is easier to memorise.
You will see the first five angas in both lines are a repeat.
If you observe the line above, you will see there are five different symbols denoting five different angas. There are a total of 18 such units showing a total of 18 angas.
Normally in the course of our practice we will only be coming across talas with lagu and dhrutham because those are the components of most thalas like triputa, ata, matya, dhruva, eka etc. Occassionally we come across the anudhrutham if we are singing something in jhampe.
But seldom do we come across the Guru, the Plutam or the Kakapaada( or Hamsapada)
These are denoted by the symbols S or 8, S' and the +( plus sign ) respectively.
The Guru has 8 aksharas, the Plutam has 12 aksharas and the Kakapaada has 16 aksharas
The I in the depiction above refers to a lagu and in the Simhananda it is a chatusra jaati lagu. The O refers to a dhrutham
So let us see how many aksharas this tala has
It has 6 Gurus, each of 8 aksharas equivalent to 48 aksharas
It has 3 Plutams each of 12 aksharas equivalent to 36 aksharas
It has 6 lagus of 4 aksharas each equivalent to 24 aksharas
Two dhrutams of 2 aksharas each equivalent to 4 aksharas
And it ends with a Kakapaada equal to 16 aksharas
Total = 128 aksharas or 512 matras
So one avarthanam of this is equivalent to 16 Adi tala avarthanams, which would have 8 aksharas each.
The Guru is depicted with a circular motion( clockwise) to a total of 8 beats( inclusive of the Dhruvakam which is the first downward beat on lap). The Plutam is a Dhruvakam( downward beat) and a total count of four followed by a wave to the left( Krishya) followed by three finger counts and a wave to the right( Sarpini) followed by three finger counts.
The Kakapaada is depicted by the Dhruvakam, followed by three finger counts, an upward wave( Pathitham) and three finger counts and the Krishya followed by three finger counts and Sarpini followed by three finger counts ( just like in Plutam)
What is interesting is that that the Kakapaada is supposed to be a nishabda kriya. So the Dhruvakam is made without a sound( with the fingers curved like a bird's claws on the downward beat)
All of this is demonstrated by me in the Youtube video( link below). Do take a look at it. I believe it will be quite clear.
And now for some little mnemonics to help students remember the pattern.
S S I S' I S O O
S S I S' I S' S I I +
1. If you look at the two lines, the first five characters are repeated. So first memorise this. I called it Ssishi inside my head with the sh sound for the S' signifying Plutam
2. Think of the two OOs ( dhruthams) as a mid way point. It is not. But just for this exercise. Because after this, the same Ssishi pattern will be repeated.
3. Now the first time after you finish Ssishi, you have SOO. But the second time you finish Ssishi, there is a small change. You do not have a S immediately . But a S' followed by S.
4. By the time you have come to this last S, you are almost home. This is the home stretch. You just need to have two more lagus and end with a Kakapaadam(+)
5. Also remember, that in the Ssishi pattern, the S' is always sandwiched between two lagus.
6. There are some tricky places one can get lost, if one loses focus. In 2 places the lagu is followed by a S'. Now the first bit of S' is the lagu. It is then followed by the side waves. So a little focus needed there. Or you will be wondering am I doing this right?
7. Also in the second line you have a I S' I S' pattern. So literally you will be doing two lagus before the side waves. Be conscious of that.
8. And right at the end, the Kaakapaadam also begins with a lagu. So it is like you will have three lagus one after another. Only difference is that the Kaakapaadam is a nishabd kriya. So the last time you do the lagu in this avartanam, you will do it silently with your fingers bunched together like a claw.
It took me under 30 minutes to learn to put this tala, including creating these mental tricks for myself. So yes anybody can do it. Of course, this is only about putting the tala. Singing to it is a totally different ball game, since each anga has four maatras.
The demo of me doing it is available at the link. It is an unlisted video. You can enter only through the link.
