Part of Carnatic Classical
Carnatic music, the classical tradition of South India, builds on raga and tala and centres on the voice and the kriti. Students begin with exercises in raga Mayamalavagowla.
Historical Timeline
Music Academy writers credit Veerabhadrayya, a musician at the Thanjavur court of Pratapasimha (reigned 1741 to 1765), with shaping the tillana as a distinct Carnatic form, and tillanas are said to have grown popular under his son Tulaja. Scholars trace its roots to the pata, the part of the medieval prabandha (an early composition type) set to instrumental rhythm syllables, to konnakol (rhythm recited aloud), and to jati passages in older kirtanas (devotional songs). Other writers hold that the form began in North India, from the tarana, and developed in the South. The origin remains debated.
Around 1802 to 1810 the Tanjore Quartet set the Bharatanatyam programme that placed the tillana as the pure-dance piece near its close. Swati Tirunal of Travancore (1813 to 1846 or 1847) composed music for dance in many forms, tillanas among them, and Patnam Subramania Iyer and Ramnad Srinivasa Iyengar wrote further tillanas later in the century. The tillana's settled place at the end of a concert follows the format credited to Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar in the 20th century.
The tillana takes shape at Thanjavur
An early tillana in raga Kalyani, sung in praise of Tulaja of Thanjavur and opening with the syllables tai tai, was used in dance recitals. Tulaja's father Pratapasimha had kept Veerabhadrayya, the musician credited with shaping the form, at his court.
Tanjore Quartet sets the dance programme
The Tanjore Quartet's Bharatanatyam programme makes the tillana the pure-dance piece near the close, with medium-tempo dance tillanas of closely woven svara and syllable passages. At Travancore, Swati Tirunal composes tillanas among his dance works.
Concert close and new composers
The concert format credited to Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar settles the tillana near the end of a Carnatic concert. Lalgudi G. Jayaraman and M. Balamuralikrishna compose tillanas noted in their Sangeet Natak Akademi citations.
Varnam and tillana at the core
By the 1970s varnam and tillana formed the core of Bharatanatyam recitals at the Music Academy, and some dancers began opening with a tillana. New tillanas kept appearing through the 1980s, many by dance teachers and singers.
Playing Techniques
Rhythmic Syllables (Jatis)
A tillana runs mostly on jatis drawn from sollukattu, spoken rhythm syllables that map drum strokes, mixed with solfa-type syllables such as ta ka ta ri ki ta na ka. Drum syllables dominate in dance tillanas, though no one recites them aloud there, unlike in the alarippu, the opening dance item.
Sections and Sahitya
Some tillanas have all three sections of a South Indian composition, pallavi (opening), anupallavi (second section) and charanam (closing verse); others have two. The words praise a deity or the composer's patron, with the composer's signature, the mudra, in the charanam. A few set long Sanskrit texts, such as Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer's Gauri Nayaka in Kanada.
Tempo and Tala
Most tillanas move at madhyama kala (medium speed), and some are slow. Some use nadai changes, shifts in the beat's subdivision that create cross rhythms, and a few sit in rare talas, such as Ramnad Srinivasa Iyengar's tillana in Lakshmisa tala. In dance the tempo rises towards a final cadence, and the dancer has more freedom to vary movement than in the fixed lines of the jatisvaram.
Journey to Mastery
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Tillanas in the CBSE syllabus
Jatis in Tala
Svara and jati passages
Composers and Ragas
Concert and Dance
Past Performances
Featured Artists
Renowned performers of this discipline