See Sanskrit meter for meter in Classical Sanskrit poetry.

"Chandas" redirects here. See Chandas (font) for the computer typeface.

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The verses of the Vedas have a variety of different meters. They are divided by number of padas in a verse, and by the number of syllables in a pada. Chandas (छन्दः), the study of Vedic meter, is one of the six Vedanga disciplines, or "organs of the vedas".

• jágatī: 4 padas of 12 syllables
• triṣṭubh: 4 padas of 11 syllables
• virāj: 4 padas of 10 syllables
• anuṣṭup: 4 padas of 8 syllables, this is the typical shloka of classical Sanskrit poetry
• gāyatrī: 3 padas of 8 syllables

Principles[link]

The main principle of Vedic meter is measurement by the number of syllables. The metrical unit of verse is the pada ("foot"^[1]), generally of eight, eleven, or twelve syllables; these are termed gāyatrī, triṣṭubh and jagatī respectively,^[2] after meters of the same name. A ṛc is a stanza of typically three or four padas, with a range of two to seven found in the corpus of Vedic poetry. Stanzas may mix padas of different lengths, and strophes of two or three stanzas (respectively, pragātha and tṛca) are common.

Syllables in a pada are also classified as metrically short (laghu "light") or long (guru "heavy"): a syllable is metrically short only if it contains a short vowel and is not followed by consecutive consonants in the same pada. All other syllables are long, by quality (having a long vowel or diphthong) or by position (being followed by a consonant cluster.) Comparison with the Avestan literature shows that originally there were no constraints on permissible patterns of long and short syllables, the principle being purely quantitative. Vedic prosody innovated a number of distinctive rhythms:

• The last four syllables of a pada, termed the cadence by Indologists, are usually iambic or trochaic. This is mainly a strict alternation in the penultimate and antepenultimate syllables, as the final syllable can be of either weight.
• A caesura is found after the fourth or fifth syllable in triṣṭubh and jagatī padas, dividing the pada into an opening and break before the cadence.
• The break very often starts with two short syllables.
• The opening shows an iambic or trochaic tendency in keeping with the cadence, though the first syllable can be of either weight, the alternation being in the second and third.

There is, however, considerable freedom in relation to the strict metrical canons of Classical Sanskrit prosody, which Arnold (1905) holds to the credit of the Vedic bards:

Classification[link]

Arnold (1905) uses the term dimeter for metrical schemes based on the 8-syllable (gāyatrī) pada, there being a twofold division of a pada into opening and cadence; and the term trimeter for schemes based on 11-syllable (triṣṭubh) or 12-syllable (jagatī) padas, the division being into opening, break and cadence.

The principal difference between the two forms of trimeter is in the rhythm of the cadence: generally trochaic for triṣṭubh padas and iambic for jagatī padas. Except for one significant collection, gāyatrī padas are also generally iambic in the cadence. The compatibility of iambic cadence underlies the significant variety of mixed meters combining gāyatrī and jagatī padas.

Dimeter forms[link]

Metres with two to six gāyatrī padas are named dvipadā gāyatrī, gāyatrī, anuṣṭup, pańkti and mahāpańkti. Of these, only the gāyatrī and anuṣṭubh are frequently found.

Traditional literature[link]

While Chandas (छंदः), the study of Vedic meter, is one of the six Vedanga ("limb of the vedas"), no treatises dealing exclusively with Vedic meter have survived. The oldest work preserved is the Chandas-shastra, at the transition from Vedic to Classical (Epic) Sanskrit poetry. Later sources are the Agni Purana, based on the Chandas shastra, chapter 15 of the Bharatiya Natyashastra, and chapter 104 of the Brihat-samhita. These works all date to the period roughly between 1000-1300AD. Vrittaratnakara of Kedarabhatta, dating to ca. the 14th century, is widely known, but does not discuss Vedic meter. The Suvrittatilaka of Kshemendra was also influential, and valuable for its quotations of earlier authors.

A well-known quantitative scheme in the traditional literature classifies the common meters according to the syllable count of a stanza, as multiples of 4: thus, dvipadā virāj (20), gāyatrī (24), uṣṇih (28), anuṣṭubh (32), bṛhatī (36), pańkti (40), triṣṭubh (44), and jagatī (48). This scheme omits the original virāj entirely (with 33 syllables) and fails to account for structural variations within the same total syllable count, such as the 28 syllables of the kākubh (8+12+8) versus the uṣṇih (8+8+12), or the 40 of the later virāj (4x10) versus the pańkti (5x8). More comprehensive schemes in the traditional literature have been mainly terminological, each distinct type of stanza carrying its own name. The classification is exhaustive rather than analytic: every variant actually found in the received text has been named without regard to any need for metrical restoration.

See also[link]

• Vedic accent

Notes[link]

1. ^ corresponding to a "line" rather than "foot" of Western prosody.
2. ^ e.g. Aitareya Brāhmaṇa 3.25–28

References[link]

• Klaus Mylius, Geschichte der altindischen Literatur, Wiesbaden 1983.
• B. van Nooten und G. Holland, Rig Veda, a metrically restored text, Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, 1994.
• E.V. Arnold, Vedic metre in its historical development, Cambridge, UP, 1905.
• H. Oldenberg, Prolegomena on Metre and Textual History of the Ṛgveda, Berlin 1888. Tr. V.G. Paranjpe and M.A. Mehendale, Motilal Banarsidass 2005 ISBN 81-208-0986-6
• F. Max Müller, Vedic Hymns, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 32)

External links[link]

• Appendix II of Griffith's translation, a listing of the names of various Vedic meters, with notes.
• Metrically Restored Text of the Rigveda

Deva Premal, mantra singer, from October 2006

Deva Premal (born in 1970 in Nürnberg, Germany) is a musician known for her meditative spiritual New Age music which puts ancient Sanskrit mantras into atmospheric contemporary settings.

Deva met her partner in life and music, Miten, at the Osho Ashram in Pune, India in 1990, and they have been touring together since 1992, offering concerts and chant workshops worldwide.^[1]

Best known for her top-selling chant CDs,^[2] Deva is a classically trained musician who grew up singing mantras in a German home permeated with Eastern spirituality. Her albums have topped the New Age charts throughout the world since her first release, The Essence, featuring the Gayatri Mantra. Deva & Miten's record company, Prabhu Music, reports sales of over 900,000 albums.

Deva began her journey with mantra in her mother's womb, as her father chanted the Gayatri Mantra, one of the most sacred mantras of Hinduism, to her daily, and it continued to be her bedtime lullaby after she was born. Many years later, she heard a friend singing the Gayatri and was inspired to put together an album featuring it. She and Miten recorded The Essence in her mother's apartment in Germany, the same one in which she was born and where her parents had sung the Gayatri Mantra to her years before.^[3]

Deva brought this journey with the Gayatri Mantra full circle in July, 2005, when she and Miten chanted the Gayatri for her father as he was dying: "We kept singing for what must have been over half an hour, when suddenly the monitor showed that he was about to leave. I continued to sing and the last sound he heard as he passed on was his beloved Gayatri Mantra. Finally we ended with the mantra Om and the circle was complete. He had welcomed me onto this planet with the Gayatri and I accompanied him out of this physical existence with it. What a blessing this was for me! It was the first time that I was present at a death, and to be at my father’s is a memory I will cherish all my life."^[4]

In an interview with Sam Slovik of LA Yoga Magazine,^[5] Deva discussed the potent effect many notice when chanting Sanskrit mantras:^[6]

“The meaning is secondary. The word table is not the table...With Sanskrit, the word ananda is the sound vibration of bliss. In sound the energy of bliss. We have to say bliss; we have to make it smaller by putting it into an English word. Just the sound; ananda, If we were sensitive enough we’d just feel the entire scope of that energy that’s contained in this sound... It’s working on a cellular level. It’s much deeper than the mind. It’s not a language that you need to understand the meaning of before you use it. It’s a deep universal sound code that connects us all.”

Deva's chants have been used in a wide variety of settings in recent years. Cher featured Deva's version of the Gayatri Mantra on her Farewell Tour^[7] and Russian Prima Ballerina Diana Vishneva danced to Deva's Gayatri in Moses Pendleton's F.L.O.W. series.^[8] Actor/director Edward James Olmos is said to have handed out copies of Deva's Gayatri Mantra to the entire cast and crew of Battlestar Gallactica,^[9] as well as citing her music as a source of inspiration in preparing his role as Commander Adama in the series.^[10] Mr. Olmos also used Om Hraum Mitraya from Deva's album Dakshina to close his HBO movie Walkout,^[11]

Deva and Miten performed for The Dalai Lama during a 2002 Conference in Munich, Germany on Unity In Duality, which brought top figures from the scientific community together with members of the Buddhist community.^[12] They gave a concert for the full conference, and were also invited to sing for the Dalai Lama at a small pre-conference gathering.^[13] They had heard that his favorite mantra was the Tara Mantra, dedicated to the Green Tara of Compassion, and that he had asked for it be chanted recently when he was ill, and so they chanted it for him.

Deva's most recent release, Tibetan Mantras For Turbulent Times, was recorded with the Gyuto Monks of Tibet and was created as a support for mantra meditation practice, featuring eight mantras chanted 108 times each. It is a benefit CD, with all proceeds going to the Gyuto Monastery in Dharmsala, India, the Phowa Project, and Veggiyana.

Discography[link]

• The Essence (1998)
• Love Is Space (2000)
• Embrace (2002)
• Satsang (with Miten) (2002)
• Dakshina (2005)
• The Moola Mantra (2007)
• Into Silence (2008) (compilation)
• In Concert: The Yoga of Sacred Song and Chant (w/Miten & Manose) (2009) (CD/DVD)
• Mantras For Precarious Times (2009)
• Tibetan Mantras For Turbulent Times (2010)
• Password (2011)

Notes[link]

1. ^ Dubrovsky, Anna. Yoga Rock Stars, Yoga International, September 2008.
2. ^ Widran, Jonathan. Review: Dakshina AllMusic.
3. ^ Spirit of Things. Mantras Go Mainstream, Interview with Rachel Kohn on ABC Radio, Feb 2008.
4. ^ Deva Premal. Wolfgang And The Gayatri Mantra, Article, DevaPremalMiten.com.
5. ^ Slovik, Sam. Soul Balancing: Path of the Sacred Road Dog, LA Yoga Magazine, March 2010.
6. ^ Shapiro, Ed & Deb. Do Mantras Really Work, Huffington Post, Oct 20 2009.
7. ^ Tsering, Lisa. "Cher Chants Gayatri Mantra At Her Concerts", Times of London, Sept 5 2003.
8. ^ "Beauty In Motion-F.L.O.W. Part III", YouTube.
9. ^ Stailey, M. Battlestar Gallactica: All Access, DVD Verdict Legal Briefs, June 8, 2007.
10. ^ Ruby, Jamie. "Edward James Olmos: Exclusive Interview With MediaBlvd", Battlestar Aries, Aug 5 2009.
11. ^ Educate Your Thinking, YouTube.
12. ^ Tarab Institute. Unity In Duality-Tendrel Congress, Tarab Institute, Oct 10-13 2002.
13. ^ Attwood, Janet Bray Songs of the Divine: An interview from the Dialogues with the Masters Series, Healthy Wealthy nWise, Feb 2008.

External links[link]

• Official website