Home
The Kriti, or the compositional form of South Indian art music, is believed to be ecstatic spontaneous utterances rooted in the composer's particular religious experience expressed in the song form and is composed in a specific modal scale, ‘raga,’ and a specific beat cycle, ‘tala.’ This compositional set is based on the seven primordial talas. This choice of the time-cycle-based compositional group for the planets is influenced by how tala is time-measure and how the vicissitudes of time affect us in Indic thought and philosophy. Each celestial deity and corresponding composition is associated with a specific raga, tala, color, geometric pattern, and iconography.
Sunday – 14
Monday – 10
Tuesday – 6
Wednesday – 10
Thursday – 7
Friday – 14
Saturday – 4
The Sun is associated with a circle, the color white, the element fire, the gemstone Ruby, and a deity on a chariot pulled by seven horses (Dikshita ingeniously sets the Sun composition in a 7*2 beat cycle). The moon-deity is pulled by a chariot with ten horses and the rhythmic cycle for the composition is in cycles of 10.
The longest and more elaborate 14 beat cycles are reserved for the large deities Sun (Sunday) and Venus (Friday) while The deity for Saturday, Sani, who is associated with evil is assigned a four beat-cycle.