Doha

Metrical form in northern Indian bhakti
(devotional) poetry, made up of
two lines of twenty-four metric beats,
divided unevenly after the thirteenth
beat. The metric pattern for the first
line is 6 + 4 + 3, with the second line
being 6 + 4 + 1. The method of counting
the metric beats is based on the
distinction between “heavy” and “light”
syllables. A heavy syllable is any syllable
with a long vowel or a consonant cluster
and is reckoned at two metric beats; all
other syllables are reckoned as light, and
reckoned as one. Aside from the metric
pattern, there are rules about how each
half line should end—that the three
metric beats ending the first line cannot
be a heavy syllable (two beats) followed
by a light one (one beat)—which means
that it must either be a light syllable
followed by a heavy one, or three light
ones—and that the line’s final syllable
must be light. These conventions still
leave a great deal of fluidity, and the
doha is one of the most important
poetic forms for poets writing in Braj
Bhasha (the language of Krishna
devotion) and Avadhi (a dialect of
medieval Hindi). At times the doha can
stand alone, as in the epigrams of the
poet-saint Kabir, which have become
proverbial sayings in much of modern
India. The doha was also used in conjunction with verses in other meters,
as in the Ramcharitmanas. In this
vernacular rendition of the epic
Ramayana, written by the poet-saint
Tulsidas, the doha usually comes after
four verses in the chaupai (four-line)
meter, and serves to sum up what has
transpired in the preceding verses.