Chhanda or measured poetry: 2
|| shriihariH ||
Recap
The notion of counting or assigning weights to syllables was discussed. Using the rules of counting, parsing a sentence into a string of 1 and 2, short and long respectively, was exemplified^.
Notation
A charaNa or a foot is a single measured sentence. A pada or a feet is a collection of four charaNa or four foot. Loosely speaking, a pada is like a stanza in most of the forms of poetry encountered in daily life except for the qualityless free-verse.
Chhanda: Definition and Classifications
As the title of the post suggests, chhanda means a piece of measured poetry. A poem in which every sentence is measured by syllables according to some pre-defined rule is called a chhanda. Primarily, there are two ways to measure poetry:
(a) If the number of syllables used is fixed, the chhanda is called as ``maatrik chhanda,'' which loosely means number-based-chhanda.
(b) If the values or weights or lengths of the syllables are fixed according to a certain rule, the chhanda is called as ``vaarNik chhanda,'' which loosely translates as syllable-based-chhanda.
One more classification is present in either type of chhanda. The measurement in the four charaNa of a pada can be varied and that leads to the following sub-classifications:
(a) If the number of syllables used is fixed, the chhanda is called as ``maatrik chhanda,'' which loosely means number-based-chhanda.
(b) If the values or weights or lengths of the syllables are fixed according to a certain rule, the chhanda is called as ``vaarNik chhanda,'' which loosely translates as syllable-based-chhanda.
One more classification is present in either type of chhanda. The measurement in the four charaNa of a pada can be varied and that leads to the following sub-classifications:
(a) sama or similar: If all the four charaNa are identical in measurement rule, it is called as sama-chhanda.
(b) ardha-sama or alteranating: If first and third, and second and fourth charaNa have identical measurement rules and the chhanda is not sama-chhanda, it is called as ardha-sama-chhanda.
(c) viShama or difficult: If all the four charaNa are different by measurement rule, it is called as viShama-chhanda.
As one expects, sama-chhanda is easiest to sing and tune while hardest to write. On the other hand, viShama-chhanda is on the other extreme. From previous post, we notice that bhuja~Ngaprayaat, paMchachaamara, and toTaka are sama-chhanda. In the next post, some examples of various types of chhanda will be discussed.
Footnote(s)
^ For those who don't know sanskrit alphabet, a post is coming up soon.
(b) ardha-sama or alteranating: If first and third, and second and fourth charaNa have identical measurement rules and the chhanda is not sama-chhanda, it is called as ardha-sama-chhanda.
(c) viShama or difficult: If all the four charaNa are different by measurement rule, it is called as viShama-chhanda.
As one expects, sama-chhanda is easiest to sing and tune while hardest to write. On the other hand, viShama-chhanda is on the other extreme. From previous post, we notice that bhuja~Ngaprayaat, paMchachaamara, and toTaka are sama-chhanda. In the next post, some examples of various types of chhanda will be discussed.
Footnote(s)
posted by Gulgula @ 11:27 AM
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