Keherwa tabla online: 8 beats, theka and free practice player
Keherwa has 8 beats in two sections of four. You clap on beat 1 and wave on beat 5. The theka is Dha Ge Na Ti, Na Ka Dhi Na, though it is spelled several ways. It is a taal of folk, film and light music, not of khayal.
Free, no sign-up. SurRoots opens on the Tabla panel with Keherwa already chosen. Press play.
New to the words? A matra is one beat. A vibhag is a section of the cycle. Sam is the first beat, marked X. Khali is a beat you wave, marked 0; the other marks are claps (tali). The theka is the taal’s basic pattern of bols, the spoken names of tabla strokes.
Keherwa at a glance
| Beats | 8 |
|---|---|
| Sections (vibhag) | 4+4 |
| Clap and wave | Clap on beat 1; wave on beat 5 |
| Pattern | Clap, 2, 3, 4, wave, 2, 3, 4 |
| Tempo | No published range found; varies widely by song |
| Often heard in | Folk, film songs, qawwali, Rabindra Sangeet, ghazal |
| Also spelled | Kaherava, Kaharwa, Kherva |
The Keherwa theka, section by section
| Section | Beats | Mark | Bols |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section 1 | 1 to 4 | X · sam · clap | Dha Ge Na Ti |
| Section 2 | 5 to 8 | 0 · khali · wave | Na Ka Dhi Na |
Bols are the spoken names of tabla strokes. Where a bol is spelled differently by different teachers, we say which spelling we print in the section below.
How to count Keherwa
Two groups of four:
1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8
Clap on 1 and wave on 5. Gangolli puts it simply: every variation of this taal is 4+4, with a tali on the first beat and a khali on the fifth. That makes Keherwa one of the easiest taals to count.
Four ways to spell the theka
This is the taal where the written theka differs most between sources. All four have the same shape, four bols in the clap half and four in the wave half, and differ only in a few bols and in spelling:
| Source | Beats 1 to 4 | Beats 5 to 8 |
|---|---|---|
| SwarGanga | Dhaa Gi Naa Ti | Naa Ka Dhi Naa |
| Courtney | Dhaa Ge Naa Tee | Naa Ka Dhin Naa |
| Gangolli | Dha ge na te | na ka dhe na |
| DigiTabla | Dha Ge Na Tin | Na Ke Dhin Na |
DigiTabla goes further: it says there is no particular Keherwa theka you could call the most common in performance, and that there are endless variations by lineage, region or genre. We print a common spelling, Dha Ge Na Ti, Na Ka Dhi Na; the table shows how each source writes it.
Where you will hear Keherwa
Courtney writes that Keherwa may be the most popular taal in northern India. It is widely used in folk music, film songs, qawwali, Rabindra Sangeet and ghazal. He describes it as a taal of the non-classical traditions, and says it is not found in khayal, tarana, dhrupad or dhamar. He also warns that the popularity is a little misleading: the name gets applied to many unrelated four-, eight- and sixteen-matra rhythms, so Keherwa on a recording may mean a pattern quite different from the textbook theka.
How SurRoots plays it
The written sources print one bol per beat. SurRoots instead plays the eight bols at double speed: one pass of Dha Ge Na Tin Na Ka Dhi Na takes four beats, so it plays twice in each eight-beat cycle, as in the reference recording it was modelled on. The beat counter and the clap-wave pattern are as written here: eight beats, clap on 1, wave on 5.
How fast is Keherwa played?
None of the references we checked gives a typical tempo range for Keherwa, and the DigiTabla note that the theka itself varies by lineage and genre suggests it would be a poor guide anyway. Pick the speed of the song you are practising with.
One Keherwa cycle takes 6 seconds at SurRoots’ Slow preset (80 BPM), 4 seconds at Medium (120) and 3.3 seconds at Fast (145).
Practise Keherwa with SurRoots
- Press Open Keherwa in SurRoots. The taal menu is already set to Keherwa (8).
- Pick a tempo (start with Slow) and press the round play button.
- Clap and wave along. Basic keeps a steady theka with no variations; Pro adds variations, fills and a tihai.
- Press the tabla’s stop button once to end on sam, the way a tabla player would.
Try this: practise at Medium, counting two to a beat in your head (“1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”) to match how SurRoots plays it, then try the Pro setting for variations.
Questions about Keherwa
How many beats are in Keherwa and where is the khali?
Eight, in two groups of four. You clap on beat 1 and wave on beat 5.
Which Keherwa theka is the right one?
There is no single one. The sources spell it differently, and DigiTabla says no one Keherwa theka can be called the most common in performance.
Is Keherwa used in classical music?
Courtney describes it as a taal of the non-classical traditions: folk music, film songs, qawwali, Rabindra Sangeet and ghazal. He says it is not found in khayal, tarana, dhrupad or dhamar.
The other six taals in SurRoots
- Teentaal: 16 beats, 4+4+4+4. The most common taal in north Indian classical music.
- Ektaal: 12 beats, six pairs, two waves. The taal of slow khayal.
- Jhaptaal: 10 beats, 2+3+2+3. A medium-tempo taal with uneven sections.
- Rupak: 7 beats, 3+2+2. The one taal that starts on a wave.
- Dadra: 6 beats, 3+3. The light-music taal of film songs, bhajans and ghazals.
- Deepchandi: 14 beats, 3+4+3+4. Four silent beats and two versions.
Sources
Beats, sections, marks and bols checked against these pages on 6 November 2026. Where they disagree, we say so above rather than pick one quietly.