Understand Jaati in Tabla

Let us understand Jaati in Tabla with an example. Consider one second as one Beat and clap on each of these beats. You should now be clapping at a steady pace of 1 clap per second. We have a Rhythm!!! Now let us split the beat into 4 parts and count the numbers 1-2-3-4 in a single beat and continue that in a cycle (Clap-2-3-4, Clap-2-3-4, Clap-2-3-4 ….) that forms a Rhythmic pattern. Continue for a while till you absorb this pattern. Now let us split the beat into 3 parts, count the numbers 1-2-3 in a single beat and continue that in a cycle (Clap-2-3, Clap-2-3…). Again, continue this for a while and enjoy the swing/pattern this creates. Did you notice how different the swing/pattern of a 4 parts per beat is from a 3 parts per beat?.

Jaati is a “Chhand” (specific rhythmic pattern or a swing) that is created by dividing a single beat into parts of different sizes and repeating them in a cycle. There are 5 Jaati:

• Tishra Jaati - Compositions created with each beat having 3 parts (Clap-2-3, Clap-2-3…) 
•  Chatashra Jaati - Compositions created with each beat having 4 parts (Clap-2-3-4, Clap-2-3-4…)
• Khanda Jaati - Compositions created with each beat having 5 parts (Clap-2-1-2-3, Clap-2-1-2-3…)
• Mishra Jaati - Compositions created with each beat having 7 parts (Clap-2-3-1-2-3-4, Clap-2-3-1-2-3-4…)
• Sankirna Jaati - Compositions created with each beat having 9 parts (Clap-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-5, Clap-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-5…)

That’s it!!! You now understand the concept of Jaati in Tabla.

We can go further if you are aware of syllables in Tabla. We can replace the numbers with syllables to give a more musical form to these patterns. e.g. a Tisra Jaati (Clap-2-3, Clap-2-3..) can be represented by Takita (Ta-ki-ta, Ta-ki-ta…), Dhagena (Dha-ge-na, Dha-Ge-na…) etc. 

We can go even further and have entire compositions follow one pattern. Here is an example of a Tisra Jaati Kaida made famous by Ustaad Aamir Hussain Khan Saheb:DhatirakitaTakatirakita DhatirakitaTakatirakita DhatiGhinadhati DhatiGadigana Note that a combination of 3,6,12,24 parts per beat will still have the same pattern. So, in the case of this Kaida, the words have a combination of 12 and 6 parts per beat