avartanams

Avartanam is a term in Indian classical music that denotes a complete cycle of a rhythmic framework called a tala. In both Carnatic and Hindustani traditions, a tala is a fixed sequence of beats, and an avartanam runs from one sam (the first beat) to the next sam, at which point the cycle restarts. The length of an avartanam matches the number of beats in the tala, so talas with 8, 7, 10, 16, or other counts each define a corresponding avartana.

In performance, avartanas organize the pacing of a piece. Musicians count and align phrases, improvisations, and sections to the tala’s cycle, and the singer or instrumentalist may shape passages to fit a specified number of avartanas. The rhythmic foundation is often reinforced by a percussionist, who maintains the cycle and marks the points of the sam through clap or syllables.

A prominent use of the term is tani avartanam, the percussion solo portion in which the accompanying drummer (such as mridangam or tabla) explores the tala cycle extensively. During tani avartanam, the drummer elaborates the tala over successive avartanas, typically concluding with a strong sam alignment to close the segment or transition to the next section.

Etymologically, avartanam comes from Sanskrit, meaning cycle or turning. While the concept is shared across Indian classical music, practitioners may refer to the number of avartanas to structure a performance, indicating how many complete cycles of the chosen tala will be performed.