The basic time unit of tala: Teentaal has sixteen matras, Jhaptaal ten. The matra is a count, not a stroke — at slow tempo one matra may carry eight strokes, at high speed a single stroke may span several matras.
Subdivision is always reckoned per matra: dugun places two units on each, chaugun four. Vibhag boundaries, tihai arithmetic, and layakari ratios are all expressed in matras, which is why fluent internal counting is treated as non-negotiable training.