Avartana
One complete cycle of a tala.
An avartana is one journey through the whole tala, from its beginning back to the same point. The next cycle begins immediately after the previous one ends.
Example
In Adi tala, count 1 2 3 4 | 5 6 | 7 8. Returning to count 1 starts the next avartana. A musical sentence may occupy one cycle, several cycles, or begin partway through a cycle.