The Music of Hindostan c13.s2.100

c13.s2.100

This may account for the longer groups given in our list, but not for the short ones; it may account for layaḥ, for instance, which is much like the cadence of a Sāman (or of one of our mediaeval hymns), but not for ekatāli. We will examine some of these shorter ones. The first five in the list given in the Ratnākara, and these alone, are named by the first five ordinal numbers—Adi, dvitīyaḥ, tṛtīyaḥ, caturthaḥ, pañcamaḥ—just as the notes of the Sāman chant were named prathamaḥ, dvitīyaḥ, tṛtīyaḥ, caturthaḥ. It is possible that they were felt to represent more fundamental distinctions than those tālas which have what we may call a fancy name. They are: