Traditional Alankara (Sanskrit: अलंकार, romanized: Alaṃkāra), also referred to as palta or alankaram, is a concept in Indian classical music and literally means "ornament, decoration".
An alankara is any pattern of musical decoration a musician or vocalist creates within or across tones, based on ancient musical theories or driven by personal creative choices, in a progression of svaras.
[1] The concept of alankara applies to both vocal and musical instrument performance.
[1] Purandara Dasa, the father of modern Carnatic music, developed learning exercises for students based on alankara and svaravali, where the student systematically repeats a certain set of patterns over three octave registers, across various ragas and talas.
[2] A song without any alankara, would be like a night without a moon, a river devoid of water, a vine without any flower, and a woman without any ornament.