Laya in Indian music: Monody and the shapes of time

Abstract

The essay begins by negating a common fallacy that heavy beat is the prime vehicle of feeling in music; then continues by describing the role of essentially linear laya as the prime vehicle of feeling in Indian music. It goes on to describe the nature and properties of the basic structures of Indian music, including râga and tala, along with the distinctive role of laya in developing extempore monodic composition based on these structures. This involves considering the nature of time itself, and how in performance laya works by generating a specific order of shapes through and of time, Finally it discusses how laya as time-process can evoke in the audience well defined inner states (rasas), each based on setting into resonance (dhvani) traces of particular feeling-filled experiences, eventually combining the particular states into an ultimate rasa, which is a mode of mystical insight.