Introduction to Ektal

Ektal is another popular North Indian classical tal. You will often hear it in the vocal genre of bara khyal, which uses a very slow vilambit (ati vilambit) version of ektal. But it is also common in other vocal and instrumental genres, and in tabla solo, where medium and faster tempos of ektal are more common.

Although ektal is a 12-matra tal, at medium and faster tempos, it is not difficult to follow. It often feels like a 6/8 rhythm with two parts.

But at vilambit tempos, especially the very slow vilambit ektal of bara khyal mentioned above, it has a very different feeling. For some listeners, it might not feel like a rhythm at all because it is so slow. (See the Ektal Theka section for more on this).

Ektal is an unusual tal in the way that its structure relates to what is played on top, such as ektal thekas, kaydas, and bants. These compositional forms do not usually match ektal’s vibhags (divisions), or its tali-khali pattern. This is discussed more below and in the Ektal Theka section.

Ektal Structure

Ektal’s vibhags are divided 2–2–2–2–2–2 with a tali-khali pattern of thali-khali-tali-khali-tali-tali:

In written form, this vibhag structure is marked as X–0–2–0–3–4:

• X = sam and first thali vibhag
• 0 = khali vibhag
• 2 = second thali vibhag
• 0 = khali vibhag
• 3 = third thali vibhag
• 4 = fourth thali vibhag

Ektal Timekeeping Pattern

The ektal tali-khali pattern is shown by the timekeeping pattern clap-wave-clap-wave-clap-clap:

Ektal Timekeeping with Lahra

The video below shows the ektal timekeeping pattern with lahra (melodic timekeeping).

Compositions in Ektal

Cyclic/theme-and-variation compositions such as thekas, kaydas, relas, bants, etc. often match, or show, the structure of the tal. This is mostly true of the major North Indian tals such as tintal, rupak, and jhaptal for example.

But cyclic compositions in ektal do not usually match the structure of the tal. They are, of course, 12 beats long. But they often do not match the divisions of the vibhags or the tali-khali pattern of the tal. This can be confusing for students.

As we saw above, ektal is divided into vibhags of 2–2–2–2–2–2 with a tali-khali pattern of thali-khali-tali-khali-tali-tali:

But most traditional cyclic compositions in ektal have phrases divided into groups of 3. So a typical ektal kayda would be divided 3–3–3–3, not 2–2–2–2–2.

For an example, we can look at the phrases of Ektal Benares Kayda 1 (major phrases are in parenthesis):

See the Compositions page for other ektal theme-and-variation examples and you will see that most will follow a 3–3–3–3 pattern.

The ektal theka, on the other hand, does follow the 2–2–2–2–2 division, but the tali-khali pattern of the theka bols does not match the tali-khali pattern of the tal. This issue is discussed in the next section on the ektal theka.