  Bharatanatyam, an Indian Classical Dance form, represents the rich cultural
heritage of India. Analysis and recognition of such dance forms are critical
for the preservation of cultural heritage. Like in most dance forms, a
Bharatanatyam dancer performs in synchronization with structured rhythmic
music, called Sollukattu, which comprises instrumental beats and vocalized
utterances (bols) to create a rhythmic music structure. Computer analysis of
Bharatanatyam, therefore, requires a structural analysis of Sollukattus. In
this paper, we use speech processing techniques to recognize bols. Exploiting
the predefined structures of Sollukattus and the detected bols, we recognize
the Sollukattu. We estimate the tempo period by two methods. Finally, we
generate a complete annotation of the audio signal by beat marking. For this,
we also use the information of beats detected from the onset envelope of a
Sollukattu signal. For training and test, we create a data set for Sollukattus
and annotate them. We achieve 85% accuracy in bol recognition, 95% in
Sollukattu recognition, 96% in tempo period estimation, and over 90% in beat
marking. This is the maiden attempt to fully structurally analyze the music of
an Indian Classical Dance form and the use of speech processing techniques for
beat marking.
