Chhanda or measured poetry: 6

|| shriihariH ||

Recap

The previous posts finished the review of parsing sentences, sama-chhanda, and ardha-sama-chhanda. In this post viShama-chhanda will be discussed.

viShama-chhanda: difficult structures

A chhanda with all four charaNa having different syllable pattern is called as viShama-chhanda. It is simplest to define, and perhaps write, but it is hardest to conceive. Note that viShama-chhanda differs drastically from free verse. Free verse has no rules; viShama-chhanda has rules, albeit rules are different for different charaNa. Finally, relative charaNa in different pada follow the same rule. Thus, free verse should not be confused with viShama-chhanda. Personally, the author has had no experience in writing viShama-chhanda, hence the artisitic and recital structure of viShama-chhanda are not demystified in this post.


Since each charaNa has its own metric structure, it is best to summarize a viShama-chhanda by its syllable structure in numeric notation.

1) aapiiDa

The aapiiDa chhanda has the following numeric structure:

1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2

In absence of a known example to this chhanda, the author is extemporing an example by Lord's inspiration.

Example:

sulalitavanamaalaM |
karakalitakamalamatiramyaM ||
bhujagapati anujamamitachhavibaalaM |
tribhuvanahRRidayakamalahitamadhukaravaravande ||

Bhaaluu

Note: A simple variation to aapiiDa is by shifting the location of the shortest charaNa to second, third, and fourth positions. These are called as kalikaa, lavalii, and amRRitadhaaraa.

Conclusions

There are very little number of viShama-chhanda compared to the other two types. The topic of classification of chhanda along with examples is finished. The next post will discuss advanced topics on chhanda. These include the notion of pauses, making exceptions to the rules, breaking the rules, etc.