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I studied #Hindustani #tala for a few years with Maya Misra, widow of Pt Ramesh Misra. Tala (or taal) is the system of counting beat cycles using the various sounds (bols) that a tabla makes. A few years ago I presented a lecture on the most basic taals. Each tala has a characteristic set of bols (called the theka). After you learn the theka, you practice accelerating how many bols are on a beat.
Taal is different from konnokol. Konnokol also uses syllables but they don’t represent drum sounds. Konnokol was developed as a system for performing Indian rhythms vocally. Konnokol is actually meant to be recited within the context of a taal. So you will often see a performer vocalizing konnokol while counting the taal with their hands.
Here’s my original notebook depicting dadra taal at ekgun, dugun, tigun and chogun (1,2,3,and 4 syllables per beat, all preserving the theka).
