Meter, Poetic

Indian poetry has well-developed metrical
forms, basically following two dominant
patterns. The first metric pattern is
based simply on the number of syllables
in a line. In the second pattern, each line
contains a certain number of metric
beats, 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 given two
metric beats; all other syllables are considered light and counted as one beat.
Sanskrit poetry tends to stress the
former pattern, and has codified meters
ranging from four to twenty-six syllables
per half-line, yet even within these syllabic constraints each meter usually has
a prescribed sequence of light and heavy
syllables as well. Two different Sanskrit
poetic meters may thus have the same
number of syllables, but vary in their
syllabic patterns. Although such subtle
differences could generate vast numbers of meters, in practice there were
only about a hundred. The vast majority
of Sanskrit texts are written in a single
meter, the anushtubh, which has eight
syllables per half-line.
Later devotional (bhakti) poetry,
particularly in northern India, tend to
favor poetic forms based on the number
of metric beats. The most popular forms
are the doha, which has twenty-four
metric beats in two lines, and the chaupai, which has four lines of sixteen beats
each. Although there are several poetic
forms based on the number of syllables
in each line, particularly the savaiya and
the kavitt, these were used less often.