Learn › Paltas

Paltas and alankars: type how it starts

A palta (alankar) is a short pattern of swaras carried up the scale to taar Sa and back down. In the studio you type only its opening, and it builds the whole aroh and avroh, then plays it over the tabla and tanpura so you can sing along.

Try one now

Examples to open

• S R G R G m — a group of three, moving up one swara at a time
• P D N N D P — a turn that starts on mandra Pa
• S R G m — four swaras a matra (chaugun)
• S G R m — skipping a swara, two a matra (do gun)

How the studio reads what you type

• The pattern repeats itself. S R G R G m is read as the group S R G moving up one swara at a time. A pattern with no repeat inside it, like P D N N D P, is one group, moved up whole.
• Octaves are placed for you. Mark them with ' (taar) or _ (mandra) if you want; otherwise each swara sits nearest the one before, and the pattern starts where it can travel furthest without going below mandra Pa. So P D N N D P starts on mandra Pa, and S R G on madhya Sa.
• A group is judged by the swara it lands on. The aroh climbs until a group lands on taar Sa (or taar Pa, if you choose it), passing it on the way if the shape does.
• Two ways back, and you choose. Ulta is the aroh's mirror image, starting on the swara the aroh landed on and ending home where it began. Same pattern steps back down through the aroh's own groups. Both are shown in full before you make it.
• It ends home on sam. The last swara is held to the end of the avartan, so the palta loops cleanly.
• Thaat or raag. In a thaat you get its seven swaras; in a raag, only the swaras that raag takes, each way, as Gurmat Sangeet Sagar prints its aroh and avroh.
• Any laya, any taal. Ek, do, ti or chau gun (one to four swaras a matra), in any of the book's 20 taals. Change the taal or the laya and the palta is laid out again at once.

Every palta you make can be shared with the Share link button: the link opens the same palta in anyone's studio, ready to play.