A variation spun from a theme — the working unit of kaida development. Paltas permute, regroup, and extend the theme's own bols; introducing foreign material breaks the form's contract. Standard devices include swapping segment order, isolating a fragment for repetition, and shifting material between the open and khali halves.
Students first learn fixed paltas by dictation, then the grammar for generating their own. In performance, palta sequences build density and intricacy before the closing tihai.