Anuṣṭubh

Anuṣṭubh (Sanskrit: अनुष्टुभ्, IPA: [ənuˈʂʈubʱ]) is the name of a meter and a metrical unit, found in both Vedic and Classical Sanskrit poetry, but with significant differences.

By origin, an anuṣṭubh stanza is a quatrain of four lines. Each line, called a pāda (lit. "foot"), has eight syllables.

Arnold distinguishes three varieties of anuṣṭubh in the Vedic corpus: an early free form, with very few restrictions except a general iambic ("υ - υ +") tendency in the cadence (vṛtta) of each of the four pādas; e.g.

ā´ yás te sar | pirāsute | - - - - | u - u - |

ágne śám ás | ti dhā´yase‖ - - u - | u - u - ‖

áiṣu dyumnám | utá śrávah | - - - u | u - u u |

ā´ cittám már | tieṣu dhāh ‖ - - - - | u - u - ‖

next, a mildly trochaic development in the opening of each pāda; and finally the development of the "epic Anuṣṭubh" (mostly in the Atharvaveda) prefiguring the classical śloka 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 equaled (23%) by the normal and characteristic cadence of the first verse in the epic Anuṣṭhubh (śloka), where the iambic cadence in the first verse has entirely disappeared.

In classical Sanskrit the anuṣṭubh developed into its specific epic form known as shloka, 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.

The epic anuṣṭubh (shloka) is treated as a couplet. Each hemistich of 16 syllables can take either a pathyā ("normal") form or one of several vipulā ("extended") forms.

The metrical constraints on a hemistich in terms of its two constituent pādas are as follows:

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