Sanskrit prosody
Sanskrit prosody is the study of metre in Sanskrit poetry. Standard traditional works on meter are Pingala's Chandaḥśāstra and Kedāra's Vṛttaratnākara. The most exhaustive compilations, such as the modern ones by Patwardhan and Velankar contain over 600 meters. This is a substantially larger repertoire than in any other metrical tradition.
Classification
The metres of classical Sanskrit poetry are divided into three kinds.
Syllabic verse (akṣaravṛtta): meters depend on the number of syllables in a verse, with relative freedom in the distribution of light and heavy syllables. This style is derived from older Vedic forms, and found in the great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
Syllabo-quantitative verse (varṇavṛtta): meters depend on syllable count, but the light-heavy patterns are fixed.
Quantitative verse (mātrāvṛtta): meters depend on duration, where each verse-line has a fixed number of morae, usually grouped in sets of four.
Elements of prosody
Light and heavy syllables