Raga identification made easy!

Laya Lahiri : Thisra Nadai


Welcome back to the next episode of 'Laya Lahari'.  

In this episode, Suri explains the what is Thisra Nadai and also plays a small sample for us in the Mridangam.  

'Thisra' means three and therefore when a particular tala is being played in Thisra nadai, it means that each beat has 3 matras.  The most common phrase used to denote three matras is 'Tha ki ta'.  There are also other phrases which are multiples of three and can therefore fit in to Thisra nadai.   Listen to Suri's audio clips to know more………..

Hope you found this episode interesting.  Do stay tuned, we will be back with another nadai soon!


Laya Lahiri section discusses the fundamentals of rhythm or laya, which forms an integral part of Carnatic music. Vidwan Thillaisthanam R. Suriyanarayanan explains the common and 'must-know' aspects of laya through his mridangam demonstrations. (Explanations in Tamil) This is by no means exhaustive but we hope this would be a good beginner's guide for rasikas to get started with percussion in Carnatic music.