एकताल (iTrans: ek_taal) is among the common talas, or rhythmic cycles, used in Hindustani (North Indian) classical music. It is the equivalent in the Khayal style of the dhrupad tala चौेताल chautaal or चारताल chaar_taal.
It's easy to see why chaar_taal is called that:
धा धा | धिं ता | किट धा | धिं ता | किट तक | गदि गन
dhaa dhaa | dhi.n taa | kiTa dhaa | dhi.n ta | kiTa taka | gadi gana
x | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4
It has four (chaar) claps (taalii), which land at the first, fifth, ninth, and twelfth beats. Likewise, teen_taal has three (teen) claps, at the first, fifth, and thirteenth beats. But why is ek_taal called ek (one) taal? Like its dhrupad counterpart, it too has four claps, that land on exactly the same beats:
धिं धिं | धागे तिरकिट | तूँ ना | कत् ता | धागे तिरकिट | धिं ना
dhi.n dhi.n | dhaage tirakiTa | tuu.N naa | kat taa | dhaage tirakiTa | dhi.n naa
x | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4
Is it called that simply because chaar_taal was already taken? But that can't be, because in that case surely it could have been given a non-descriptive name as other talas such as ruupak or diip_cha.ndii have, which names don't specify the structure of the taal. As it is, ek_taal is a puzzling name because of the misdirection.
Is there a historical or theoretical explanation for the name of this tala, then?
