One statement of the repeated unit inside a tihai or chakradhar — a tihai contains three pallas, and a chakradhar's three statements each carry their own. The word gives players a way to talk about the anatomy of a cadence: lengthen the palla, tighten the gap between pallas.
Palla length is the variable that tihai arithmetic solves for: given the distance to sam and the gaps, the palla must fit exactly. In damdar tihais the pallas stand apart; in bedam they fuse — but the count of three is inviolable.