The Music of Hindostan c13.s2.95

c13.s2.95

The names do not help us. They are often merely picturesque appellations. Where they have a recognizable meaning it is sometimes refuted by the accompanying signs; thus Jhampa tāla and Marnt tāla both occur, but the signs show them to be quite different from the modern Tāls of those names. Possibly the explanation, but it can only be a guess, may be that the longer tālas represent the rhythm of good recitation of well-known verses or mantras. It is clear that in our own poetry, for instance, longs and shorts do not represent to be defined in the Ratnākara where (adhy. 5 śl. 258) ‘a druta followed by a rest is a detached mātrā’ (i. e. laghu); though if this can be held to imply that the laghu followed by a rest is a detached guru the value of the rest is relative to that of the note which it follows.