Theka, Prakar, and Laggi

 Theka, Prakar, and Laggi

“Theka” and “prakar” are words that should be quite familiar to you. Let us revisit these terms again.

Theka is the simplest form of the tala using as few bols as possible to get the original flow of the tala. Usually, there is a 1:1 bol to matra ratio. The theka, besides the tala structure, is the way to determine which tala it is. If you see a Figure 21.1 anywhere, I’m sure you will point it what the correct answer it is.

X(0)			2		3
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
tin	tin	nā	dhin	nā	dhin	nā

This is the theka of rupak tala. It is pretty obvious that we talked about thekas pretty much in Unit 2.

In Unit 2 and Chapter 17 of Unit 3, we talked about prakar. A prakar is an alteration of form of a tala. Here is a prakar used in Chapter 17 of rupak tala.

X(0)			2				3
1	2	3	4		5		6		7
tin	tin	nā	dhin	-	nā	nā	dhin	-	nā	nā What do thekas and prakars both have in common? They are both cyclic forms. Remember from Chapter 20 that cyclic forms consume cycle of certain number of matras. Also remember the important distinction made in the previous chapter. Thekas and prakars are both examples of cyclic forms. However, any cyclic form is not necessarily a theka or prakar. Having said that point, we must also not confuse “theka” with “prakar.” Theka is the simplest form given in a fixed number of matras. “Prakar” is a variation, and it is not always in the simplest form. As you can see, we will have many more cyclic forms to be discussed that would also need distinction and clarification. If you remember from Chapter 8, there was special type of prakar for symmetrical talas. They were called ādhā prakārs, since they cut the tala in half using the appropriate changes in baya bols. You may see the adhaprakars used in Chapter 8 for bhajani tala or the adha prakar for tintal. Here is an example of an adha prakar for ektal. X 0 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 dhin dhin dhā ge ti ra ki ṭa dhin nā