This theory of time measurement is not similar in Hindustani and Carnatic music. The unique point about the concept of tala is that it is independent of the music that accompanies it and has its own divisions. The tempo of the tala, which keeps the uniformity of the time span, is called the laya.
Several musicologists have argued that there are more than hundred talas, but only thirty talas are currently known and even within that only 10 to 12 talas are actually used. Different kinds of recognized and used talas are dadra, kaharba, rupak, ektal, jhaptal, Teental and Ada chautal. Amongst these, music composers usually use teen-tal that uses sixteen beats.
Unlike the Hindustani music, the Carnatic music has a much more rigid structure. The Tala (thala) are made of three components: laghu, dhrutam and anu dhrutam. There are original 35 thalas and each one of them can be further split into 5 ‘ghaatis’. Hence, there are 175 (35*5) thalas in Carnatic music.