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"Indravajra", "Upendravajra", "Bhujangavijrmbhita", "Sragdhara" are
some of the metres in devotional and other poetical works. Some of them
are intricate and only highly gifted people are capable of composing
them.
As mentioned earlier, the foot of a stanza with eight syllables Anustubh.
With nine syllables it is "Brhati" and with ten "Pankti". "Tristubh" has
eleven syllables and "Jagati" twelve. We have a 26syllable
metre
("Bhujangavijrambhita") which belongs to the category of "Utkrti".
Beyond this is "Dandaka" of which there are several types. The metre in
which Apparasvamigal's Tiru-t-tandagam is composed is related to this
metre.
Some metres have beautiful names. In poems composed in a certain
metre the flow of words reminds of a playful tiger lunging forward; the
metre is appropriately called "Sardulavikridita". "Sardula" means tiger;
"vikridita" is playfulness. (This metre, belonging to the category of
"Atidhriti", has 19 syllables). Each pada in it is divided into 12 and 7
syllables. Adi Sankara's Sivanandalahari is partly in this metre (a
number
of verses from the 28th stanza onwards). The initial verses of the part
called "Stuti-satakam" of the Muka-Pancasati (which is a hymn to
Kamaksi) are in this metre. The concluding one hundred verses,
"Mandasmita-satakam", are entirely in this metre. "Bhujangaprayata" is
the name of another metre which suggests a snake(bhujanga) gliding
along. Our Acharya's Subrahmanyabhujangam
is in this metre. It belongs
to the Jagati type with 12 syllables a foot, divided into six and six as
in
Ma-yu-ra-dhi-ru-dham
Ma-ha-va-kya-gu-dham
Our Achrya's Saundaryalahari is in the Sikharini metre. It has 17
syllables
in each pada. (It belongs to the category of Atyasti) The 17 syllables
are
divided into two parts of six and 11. The "Padaravinda-satakam" of the
Muka-Pancasati is in this metre. The metre called "Sragdhara" suggests a
flow of words breaking through the floodgates of poetry. It has 21
syllables (belonging to the "Prakrti" class) and each pada has three
sets of
seven syllables. Our Acarya's hymns to Siva and Visnu (describing them
from foot to head and from head to foot - padadikesanta and
kesadipadanta)
are in this metre.
I mentioned "Indravajra" first. It belongs to the Tristubh category with
11
syllables in each pada. Another 11 syllables metre is "Upendravajra". A
mixture of both is "Upajati": Kalidasa's Kumarasambhavam is in this
metre.
All these metres belong to the post-Vedic period and are employed in
poetical works as well as in hymns to various deities. "Gayatri", "Usnik",
"Anustubh", "Pankti", "Tristubh" and "Jagati" are Vedic metres.
"Gayatri" is a maha-mantra, the king of mantras. A mantra is usually
named after the deity it invokes. "Siva-Pancaksari", "Narayana-Astaksari",
"Rama-Trayodasi": in each of these the name of the deity as well as the
number of syllables in the mantra are combined. The deity for Gayatri is
Savita. Gayatri is the name of the metre also. The metre too, one should
infer from this, has divine power expressed through the sound and tone
of a mantra.
Gayatri, unlike most other mantras and slokas, has only three feet. Each
foot has eight syllables and altogether there are 24 syllables. Because
it
has only three padas or feet it is called "Tripada-Gayatri". There are
other
Gayatris also. The first Vedic mantra, "Agnimile", is in the Gayatri
metre.
(The 24-syllable Gayatri metre used in poetry and non-Vedic hymns has
four padas, each of six syllables. Usnik has also four padas, each of
seven
syllables).
So far I have spoken about metres based on the number of syllables, that
is without worrying about whether a syllable is long or short. In
prosody
the long and short syllables are called "guru" and "laghu" respectively.
Poems that make no distinction between "short" and "long" are called
"vrttas": those based on mantras are called "jati". In the latter type,
a
short syllable is one mantra and a long syllable is two mantras. Instead
of
the number of syllables what matters here is the number of matras.
The "Arya-satakam" of Muka-Pancasati is in the Arya metre. Amba, as
Arya, belongs to the most plane; so it is proper that the verse used in
singing her praises should also belong to an equally high order. That is
why they are in the Arya metre, which is based on matras and not on the
number of syllables. if you go by the number of syllables you are likely
to
be misled into thinking that the metre differs from verse to verse. |
