(Sans.: ‘a creation, a work’). In South Indian (Karnatak) art-music, a vocal composition, with text in Telugu or Sanskrit, set to a classical rāga and tāla. The subject of the poetry is normally devotional, but the artfulness of the musical setting and its suitability for improvised development are as important as its religious meaning, and distinguish the kriti from the purely devotional kīrtanam (see Kīrtana). Thus a kriti is normally embellished with pre-composed variations (sangati), and in performance it may be preceded by an extended ālāpanam (see Ālāpa) and/or followed by improvised variations (niraval, svara-kalpanā) (see India, §III, 5(iv)). The earliest kriti performed today are those of the ‘Trinity’ of Karnatak composers, muttusvāmī Dīksitar (1775–1835), Tyāgarāja (1767–1847) and śyāma Śāstrī (1762–1827).
RICHARD WIDDESS