There are an estimated 350 talas in North Indian music, of which ten are in common use. These ten, along with three unusual ones, are presented here.

Each tala is a number of beats in duration. The beats have different degrees of emphasis within a tala, and are marked with a system of hand claps, hand waves and movements of the fingers.

The most important point of rhythmic emphasis is the sam,  the first beat of the tala and point to which all variations eventually return.

It is represented by the symbol "+," and is marked by a hand clap.

The khali,  literally the empty beat, is the unaccented beat of the tala. The lack of accent is emphasized, making the khali a very important beat. It is marked by a wave of the hand and is written with the symbol "0."

Talas have other accented beats known as tali,  also marked by hand claps. They are not as heavily accented as the sam, but serve to divide the tala into smaller sections as do the sam and khali.

In written notation, the tali are numbered, starting with the number two, as the sam is the first tali. For example, the sam is written "+," the second tali is written "2," the khali "0," the third tali "3," and so on.

In this World Wide Web presentation, tabla bols written as one word have the same time value within a tala. Rests are written as "*." Each word or rest within a tala is of equal duration.

These words or rests are each equal to a beat, except in sitarkhani, ardha jaital, upa dasi, and chartal ki sawari tala, where each word or rest is an eighth note in duration.

To practice reciting theka, use this pronunciation guide to Indian drum syllables.