Tripadi (

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

, lit. ''tri'': three, ''pad'' or "adi": feet) is a native

metre The metre ( British spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its p ...

in the Kannada language dating back to c. 700 CE.

Definition

The ''tripadi'' consists of three lines, each differing from the others in the number of

feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg mad ...

and moras (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

''matras''),, but in accordance with the following rules: *The first line has 4 feet, each with 5 moras, and a

caesura 300px, An example of a caesura in modern western music notation A caesura (, . caesuras or caesurae; Latin for "cutting"), also written cæsura and cesura, is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another phrase begins. ...

at the end of the second foot. *The 6th and 10th

of the ''tripadi'' are each required to have the metrical pattern of a ''

Brahma Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp ...

'' foot:

-\smile \ \mathrm \ \smile\smile\smile \ \mathrm \ -- \ \mathrm \ \smile\smile- \ \

where

\smile

(

breve A breve (, less often , neuter form of the Latin "short, brief") is the diacritic mark ˘, shaped like the bottom half of a circle. As used in Ancient Greek, it is also called , . It resembles the caron (the wedge or in Czech, in ...

) denotes a short syllable, and

-

(

macron Macron may refer to: People * Emmanuel Macron (born 1977), president of France since 2017 ** Brigitte Macron (born 1953), French teacher, wife of Emmanuel Macron * Jean-Michel Macron (born 1950), French professor of neurology, father of Emmanu ...

) a long one. *The remaining feet have either 5 moras or 4, chosen to satisfy the rules of

Nagavarma II Nagavarma II (mid-11th or mid-12th century) was a Kannada language scholar and grammarian in the court of the Western Chalukya Empire that ruled from Basavakalyan, in modern Karnataka state, India. He was the earliest among the three most notable ...

: Line 1 20 moras in four feet
Line 2 17 moras in four feet
Line 3 13 moras in three feet. *There is

alliteration Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...

of the second letter of each line.

Metrical structure

An example, of a possible

scansion Scansion ( , rhymes with ''mansion''; verb: ''to scan''), or a system of scansion, is the method or practice of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical pattern of a line of verse. In classical poetry, these patterns are ...

(metrical structure) of a tripadi, is given in , where it is also stressed that it is ''not'' the form of the moras, but the ''number'' that is important. (Here * denotes a

)

\overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^ \star \overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^

(Line 1: 20 moras in 4 feet)

\overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^

(Line 2: 17 moras in 4 feet)

\overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^ , ,

(Line 3: 13 moras in 3 feet) Another example is:

\overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^ \star \overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^

(Line 1: 20 moras in 4 feet)

\overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^

(Line 2: 17 moras in 4 feet)

\overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^ ,  \overbrace^ , ,

(Line 3: 13 moras in 3 feet)

Example

A well-known example of the ''tripadi'' is the third stanza in the inscription of

Kappe Arabhatta Kappe Arabhatta ( kn, ಕಪ್ಪೆ ಅರಭಟ್ಟ) was a Chalukya warrior of the 8th century who is known from a Kannada verse inscription, dated to c. 700 CE, and carved on a cliff overlooking the northeast end of the artificial lake i ...

(here the symbol , denotes the end of a line, and , , , the end of the tripadi): The literal translation of the tripadi is:

Notes

References

* *{{Citation, last = Narasimhia , first = A. N. , title = A Grammar of the Oldest Kanarese Inscriptions (including a study of the Sanskrit and Prakrit loan words , year = 1941 , publisher = Originally published: Mysore: University of Mysore. Pp. 375. Reprinted in 2007: Read Books. Pp. 416 , isbn = 1-4067-6568-6 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LvkODkXF2-AC Kannada literature Kannada grammar Literature of Karnataka

Definition

Metrical structure

Example

See also

Notes

References