Ricky Nelson - I Will Follow You (1963)

अनुष्टुप् छन्दः (anuSTup CandaH)



Let's cover some prosody today.

Prosody is the metrical arrangement of syllables in poetry...that is in Sanskrit you cant simply break out into poetry after getting high on marijuana or alcohol because you need to focus to get the meters right(but some do say Soma juice was intoxicating !)


There are two types of meters:


1)वर्नच्छन्दः(varnacCandaH)


2)मात्राच्छन्दः(mAtrAcCandaH)



Today we would talk about a very important and common meter called the अनुष्टुप् छन्दः (anuSTup CandaH)


The Ramayana and Mahabharata are composed in अनुष्टुप् छन्दः (anuSTup CandaH)

Let's do some calculation.


The order of this meter is 8+8+8+8 =32


It has 4 padas of 8 syllables each.

The 5th syllable of each pada is a laghu and the 6th is a guru.

The 7th syllable of the 2nd and 4th pada is laghu.

The the 7th syllable of the 1st and 3rd pada is guru.


This shloka explains the definition of the अनुष्टुप् छन्दः (anuSTup CandaH)


लक्षणः---
"श्लोके षष्ठं गुरु ज्ञेयं, सर्वत्र लघु पञ्चमम् ।
द्विचतुष्पादयोर्ह्रस्वं सप्तमं दीर्घमन्ययोः ।।"




अनुष्टुप् (anuSTup) is for following God and and its means Following.


So its very important that we do not alter any shloka just to fit in the names of anyone we adore and change the whole format of the meter.


It's totally HARAAM (impermissible)to do innovation to religious stanzas.



Hey but I got some information for everyone, though अनुष्टुप् छन्दः (anuSTup CandaH) is for following God but even the Kama Sutra is written in अनुष्टुप् छन्दः (anuSTup CandaH)..well I guess we have to keep following!