Samskruta Chandas (prosody or meter)

 By Shri Kesava Rao Tadipatri

Basic concepts of Samskruta Chandas(prosody or meter) to be remembered are presented below with examples.

For understanding the basic rules of Chandas or prosody, the following notation is used. One mAtra is the duration of a finger snap. “ga” for guru(long sound - uchchAraNa-kAla or pronouncing duration is two mAtras) and “la” for laghu(short sound - uchchAraNa-kAla or pronouncing duration is one mAtra). A gaNa contains three characters/akSharas. There are eight gaNas. Gurus are dIrghAksharas, aksharas with anusvAra or visarga and the aksharas that come before double letters or composite letters (like in puNya, the akshara pu takes the load of “N” from next one and so becomes guru. Similarly, “a” in anna takes the load of next one “n” and so becomes guru.)

na gaNa - all laghus - la-la-la

ma gaNa - all gurus - ga-ga-ga

bha gaNa - Adi guru - ga-la-la

ja gaNa - madhya guru - la-ga-la

sa gaNa - antya guru - la-la-ga

ya gaNa - Adi laghu - la-ga-ga

ra gaNa - madhya laghu - ga-la-ga

ta gaNa - antya laghu - ga-ga-la

There is an easy way to remember for the beginners.

ya-maa-taa-raa-ja-bhaa-na-sa-la-gam (य-मा-ता-रा-ज-भा-न-स-ल-गम् ) - which has la-ga-ga-ga-la-ga-la-la-la-ga structure. The starting letter gives that gana structure. For example,

ya-maa-taa is ya gaNa - la-ga-ga.

maa-taa-raa is ma gaNa - ga-ga-ga.

taa-raa-ja is ta gaNa - ga-ga-la.

Similarly, raa-ja-bhaa, ja-bhaa-na, bhaa-na-sa, na-sa-la, sa-la-gam give the structure ra gaNa, ja gaNa, bha gaNa, na gaNa, and sa gaNa.

There are broadly four kinds. SamavRuttas, ardhasamavRuttas, vishamavRuttas and jAtis. The first three are based on aksharas and fourth one is based on mAtras.

Let us look at the Chandas used in the first 53 verses of Shri Madhvavijaya.

They are all triShTup meter which contains 11 aksharas per pAda and 44 per verse.

ShachI devi is abhimAni devatA. If we do not know the abhimAni devatas, all the devatAstris can be regarded as abhimAni devatas. In other words, one can pray Lakshmi, Sarasvati, or Bharati as abhimAni devatas. TriShTup chandas has quite a few types under that.

Among those, three types are used in those 53 verses -

1. Indravajra - ta, ta, ja, ga, ga which is ga-ga-la-ga-ga-la-la-ga-la-ga-ga.

This is in verse number 6, 10, 18, 19, 22 and 26.

See the following for one example -

taaM mantravarNairanuvarNaniiyaaM

sharvendrapuurvairapi vaktukaame |
sa.nxipnuvaakye mayi mandabuddhau |

santo guNaaDhyaaH karuNaaM kriyaasuH || 6 ||

तां मन्त्रवर्णैरनुवर्णनीयां

शर्वेन्द्रपूर्वैरपि वक्तुकामे।

संक्षिप्नुवाक्ये मयि मन्दबुद्धौ।

सन्तो गुणाढ्याः करुणां क्रियासुः॥ ६॥

tāṁ mantravarṇairanuvarṇanīyāṁ

śarvendrapūrvairapi vaktukāme |

saṁkṣipnuvākye mayi mandabuddhau |

santo guṇāḍhyāḥ karuṇāṁ kriyāsuḥ || 6 ||

2. Upendravajra - ja, ta, ja, ga, ga which is la-ga-la-ga-ga-la-la-ga-la-ga-ga.

This is in verse number 25 and 50.

namo namo nAtha namo namaste

namo namo rAma namo namaste |
punaHpunaste charaNAravindam

namAmi nAtheti naman sa reme || 25 ||

नमो नमो नाथ नमो नमस्ते

नमो नमो राम नमो नमस्ते।

पुनःपुनस्ते चरणारविन्दम्

नमामि नाथेति नमन् स रेमे॥ २५॥

namo namo nātha namo namaste

namo namo rāma namo namaste |

punaḥpunaste caraṇāravindam

namāmi nātheti naman sa reme || 25 ||

3. UpajAti(UpendramAla) - Some pAdas are in Indravajra and some in Upendravajra.

The rest all - 1-5, 7-9, 11-17, 20, 21, 23, 24, 27-49, 51-53.

See the following for one example -

kAntAya kalyANa-guNaika-dhAmne - has Indravajra mode

nava-dyunAtha-pratima-prabhAya - has upendravajra mode

nArAyaNAyAkhila-kAraNAya - has Indravajra mode

shrIprANa-nAthAya namaskaromi - has Indravajra mode

कान्ताय कल्याण-गुणैक-धाम्ने

नव-द्युनाथ-प्रतिम-प्रभाय।

नारायणायाखिल-कारणाय

श्रीप्राण-नाथाय नमस्करोमि॥

kāntāya kalyāṇa-guṇaika-dhāmne

nava-dyunātha-pratima-prabhāya |

nārāyaṇāyākhila-kāraṇāya

śrīprāṇa-nāthāya namaskaromi ||

Shri Krishnarpanamastu !