ABSTRACT
Vinayakrao Patwardhan’s second edition of MTVP is notable for its attempt to exert order on and thus reinterpret Gurudev’s original work: he sought to systematize the material by breaking it into clearer sections with discrete subheadings, by establishing a progression from abstract theoretical concepts to practical issues and concerns, and by separating the pakhavaj material from the tabla material. Kriya refers to the audible and silent hand gestures used to articulate the metric properties of tal in ancient times. Yati, as Vinayakrao put it, is the ‘normal practice of showing the rhythm or flow’ in terms of common shapes: that is, changes caused by acceleration and deceleration in the surface rhythmic structure of the music. Vinayakrao continued his introduction with a section on tals and their matra divisions, or structures. He held the demonstrably erroneous belief that ṭhekās made manifest the clapping structure of a tal.
