tanam

South Asian music

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July 14, 2026

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The term "tanam" in South Asian music, particularly in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, refers to an improvised section within a musical performance. It is characterized by the use of meaningless words to produce more or less regular rhythms, but without strict adherence to a fixed time measure. Tanam is typically performed without drum accompaniment and is part of longer, mostly improvised items like the ragam-tanam-pallavi in South Indian classical music.1

This section is intended to display the melodic framework, known as the raga, in a comprehensive manner. While it establishes rhythmic patterns, it does not follow the precise metric cycles of tala, which provide the undeviating framework for rhythmic improvisation in Indian music.21

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South Asian arts
South India
…followed by another improvised section, tanam, in which the singer uses meaningless words to produce more or less regular rhythms, but still without reference to time measure. This section, too, is without drum accompaniment. The final section, pallavi, is a composition of words and melody set in a particular tala,…
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…followed by another improvised section, tanam, in which the singer uses meaningless words to produce more or less regular rhythms, but still without reference to time measure. This section, too, is without drum accompaniment. The final section, pallavi, is a composition of words and melody set in a particular tala,…
Read More