Glossary · glossary · 1 min read
Nadai
நடை; the subdivision of a beat
Nadai, also called gati, means the number of pulses, or smaller counts, inside each beat in Carnatic music. You will hear it in percussion playing and swara passages, which are musical note passages.
By John, Music lover from Bangalore · Reviewed by BRR · Last reviewed 29 Sept 2026
Nadai
Nadai, also called gati, means the number of pulses, or smaller counts, inside each beat in Carnatic music. The beats belong to a taal, a repeating rhythmic cycle. Nadai describes how you divide each beat, not how many beats the cycle contains.
Four pulses per beat is called chatusra, the usual nadai. Three is tisra, five is khanda, seven is misra, and nine is sankeerna. The nadai can change while the taal stays the same.
Where you will hear Nadai
In Carnatic music, listen for nadai, the number of pulses within each beat, in percussion playing and swara passages (musical note passages). Changing nadai while keeping the taal, or repeating rhythmic cycle, is a favourite device in these settings.
The names tell you how many pulses fit inside a beat. Chatusra, the usual nadai, has four; tisra has three. Khanda has five, misra has seven, and sankeerna has nine. You may also meet the word gati, another name for nadai.
Keep going
- Taal for beginners: teentaal, keherwa and dadra with clap patterns · A taal is a repeating rhythmic cycle: count 16 beats for teentaal, eight for keherwa, and six for dadra. For teentaal, clap on 1, 5 and 13, wave on 9; for keherwa, clap on 1, wave on 5; for dadra, clap on 1, wave on 4.