The focus of this book (983 pages) is on the development of the two primary rhythm structures (thekas and farans) from the raw sounds to musical syllables and thenceforth onto basic strings, compound strings, sequences, avartanas and finally verses.
The first introductory chapter describes some aspects special to mridanga art and the percussion fraternity.
The second chapter deals with elementary unmetered stand-alone raw sounds which are structured into mridanga strokes and syllables for deploying them to generate sequences to fit talas.
The third chapter covers the subject of talas (musical meter) which provide an operational framework for showcasing the thekas and farans. The popular talas and the facets of tala such as syllables (aksharas), beats (mathras), cycle (avartana), string size (akshara jati), beat size (nadai), operational tempo (kala), points of resolution (sama and visama) are brought out.
The basic building block rhythm structures are the sub-strings and the strings which are...