( sa, अनुष्टुभ्, ) is a meter and a metrical unit, found in both

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

and

Classical Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the l ...

poetry, but with significant differences. By origin, an anuṣṭubh stanza is a

quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Gree ...

of four lines. Each line, called a ''pāda'' (lit. "foot"), has eight syllables.

In Vedic texts

Arnold distinguishes three varieties of anuṣṭubh in the Vedic corpus: an early free form, with very few restrictions except a general iambic (u – u x) tendency in the cadence (vṛtta) of each of the four ''pāda''s; e.g. : , , – – – – , u – u – , : , ‖ – – – – , u – u – ‖ : , , – – – u , u – u u , : , ‖ – – – – , u – u – ‖ Next came a mildly trochaic development in the opening of each ''pāda''; and finally the development of the "epic anuṣṭubh" (mostly in the

Atharvaveda The Atharva Veda (, ' from ' and ''veda'', meaning "knowledge") is the "knowledge storehouse of ''atharvāṇas'', the procedures for everyday life".Laurie Patton (2004), Veda and Upanishad, in ''The Hindu World'' (Editors: Sushil Mittal and G ...

) prefiguring the classical

śloka Shloka or śloka ( sa, श्लोक , from the root , Macdonell, Arthur A., ''A Sanskrit Grammar for Students'', Appendix II, p. 232 (Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1927). in a broader sense, according to Monier-Williams's dictionary, is ...

form. Although in these hymns the iambic cadence of the first verse is still the most frequent (25%) of all varieties, it is already very nearly equalled (23%) by the normal and characteristic cadence of the first verse in the epic anuṣṭhubh (

), where the iambic cadence in the first verse has entirely disappeared.

In Classical Sanskrit: the ''śloka''

In classical Sanskrit the ''anuṣṭubh'' developed into its specific epic form known as ''

'', as described above, which may be considered the Indian verse ''par excellence'', occurring, as it does, far more frequently than any other meter in classical Sanskrit poetry. By the 5th century CE, in the poetry of

Kalidasa Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and t ...

, the ''śloka'' had the restricted form shown in the table above. Each half-verse of 16 syllables can take either a pathyā ("normal") form or one of several vipulā ("extended") forms. The ''pathyā'' and ''vipulā'' half-verses are arranged in the table above in order of frequency of occurrence. The most common is the ''pathyā''. Out of 2579 half-verses taken from

Bharavi Bharavi () was a 6th century Indian poet known for his epic poem '' Kirātārjunīya'', one of the six ''mahakavyas'' in classical Sanskrit. Time and place As with most Sanskrit poets, very few concrete details are available about Bharavi's life ...

, Magha, and

Bilhana Kaviraj, Kavi Bilhana was an 11th-century Kashmiri Pandits, Kashmiri poet. He is known for his love poem, the ''Caurapañcāśikā''. According to legend, Bilhana fell in love with the daughter of King Madanabhirama, Princess Yaminipurnatilaka, ...

, each of the four admissible forms of shloka in this order claims the following share: 2289, 116, 89, 85;Macdonell (1927), p. 233. that is, 89% of the half-verses have the regular ''pathyā'' form. In earlier epic, such as the

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the K ...

, a fourth ''vipula'' is found, namely: :, x x x –, , – u – x , , Two rules that apply in every ''śloka'' are: :1. In both ''pāda''s, in syllables 2–3, u u is not allowed. :2. In the second ''pāda'', in syllables 2–4, – u – is not allowed.

Notes

Bibliography

* Arnold, E. V. ''Vedic metre in its historical development'', Cambridge, University Press, 1905 * Hopkins, E. W. ''The Great Epic of India'', C. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1901 * MacDonald, Anne
"Revisiting the Mūlamadhyamakakārika: Text-Critical Proposals and Problems."
''Indotetsugaku-Bukkyōgaku-Kenkyū'' 14 (2007), 25-55 * Macdonell, Arthur A. (1927), ''A Sanskrit Grammar for Students'', (Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1927) Appendix II. * Macdonell, Arthur A. (1916), A Vedic Grammar for Students Appendix II, p. 438. (Oxford University Press, 1916). * * Steiner, Roland. "Die Lehre der Anuṣṭubh bei den indischen Metrikern." ''Suhṛllekāḥ'', ''Festgabe für Helmut Eimer''. (''Indica et Tibetica'' 28). Eds. Hahn, Michael & Jens-Uwe Hartmann. Swisttal-Odendorf (1996), 227-248.

In Vedic texts

In Classical Sanskrit: the ''śloka''

Notes

Bibliography

See also