A Hindustani performance often unfolds a single raga from slow and open to fast and dense. Singers and instrumentalists travel that arc by different routes, and they name the stages differently.
A khayal performance
Khayal is a vocal form, usually accompanied by tabla, harmonium or sarangi, and the drone of the tanpura. The singer often begins with a short alap, unmetered and without tabla. David Clarke notes it may be very brief when a slow khayal follows, because that khayal opens in a similar spirit.
The tabla’s entry marks the bada khayal, a composition (bandish) set in a slow tempo, called vilambit. The singer presents its first section, the sthayi, then develops the raga gradually. Ideas keep returning to the mukhda, the opening phrase, which lands on sam, the first beat of the cycle (see Tala: Hearing Time in Cycles). Often, once the music reaches the upper tonic, the second section, the antara, arrives. The invention then quickens, with rhythmic play on the words and taans, rapid runs sung to a vowel, to the text or to note names.
A chota khayal follows, a shorter composition at a faster tempo, called drut, usually in the same raga. Some singers close with a tarana, sung to syllables without lexical meaning.
An instrumental presentation
Sitar and sarod players often take a different path. The alap is usually longer, and it moves into jor (also spelled jod), which has a steady pulse but still no tala and no tabla. On plucked instruments, jhala may follow: rapid strokes on the drone strings. The alapana article compares this with Carnatic practice.
Only then does the gat begin, an instrumental composition with tabla, often first at a slower tempo and later a faster one. Here soloist and drummer take turns improvising. Writing about a Ravi Shankar recording, the tabla player Aneesh Pradhan notes that the tabla responds to each rhythmic statement and goes on to anticipate the sitarist’s phrases. A closing jhala, now with tabla, can push the tempo much higher.
Keeping the terms apart
Jor and jhala belong to instrumental music and to dhrupad, where the pulsed vocal section is also called nom-tom. Khayal generally does not use them. A singer’s composition is a bandish; an instrumentalist’s is a gat. For how the two drums differ, see Mridangam and Tabla.
If you know the Carnatic map in One Way to Follow a Carnatic Recital, notice that here one raga usually holds the stage much longer. For more ways in, see Start Listening.
Image: Kaushiki Chakraborty, who performed for AFA in 2024
