Shloka or à Âloka ( , from the root , ) in a broader sense, according to Monier-Williams's dictionary, is "any verse or stanza; a proverb, saying"; but in particular it refers to the 32-syllable verse, derived from the Vedic anuá¹£á¹Âubh metre, used in the Bhagavad Gita and many other works of classical Sanskrit literature.
In its usual form it consists of four pÃÂdas or quarter-verses, of eight syllables each, or (according to an alternative analysis) of two half-verses of 16 syllables each. The metre is similar to the Vedic anuá¹£á¹Âubh metre, but with stricter rules.
The à Âloka is the basis for Indian epic poetry, and may be considered the Indian verse form par excellence, occurring as it does far more frequently than any other metre in classical Sanskrit poetry. The à Âloka is the verse-form generally used in the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Puranas, Smritis, and the scientific treatises of Hinduism such as Sushruta Samhita and Charaka Samhita. The Mahabharata, for example, features many verse metres in its chapters, but 95% of the stanzas are à Âlokas of the anuá¹£á¹Âubh type, and most of the rest are tristubhs.
The anuá¹£á¹Âubh is found in Vedic texts, but its presence is minor, and triá¹£á¹Âubh and gÃÂyatrë metres dominate in the Rigveda. A dominating presence of à Âlokas in a text is a marker that the text is likely post-Vedic.
The traditional view is that this form of verse was involuntarily composed by VÃÂlmëki, the author of the RÃÂmÃÂyaá¹Âa, in grief on seeing a hunter shoot down one of two birds in love. On seeing the sorrow (à Âoka) of the widowed bird, he was reminded of the sorrow Sëtàfelt on being separated from Shri Rama and began composing the Ramayana in shlokas. For this he is called the ÃÂdikavi (first poet.)
In addition to the Sanskrit à Âloka, several Indian vernacular languages utilize this form in the maá¹ gaḷÃÂcaraá¹Âam, a set of benedictory verses that precede a work of poetry or technical writing.
Each 16-syllable hemistich (half-verse), of two 8-syllable pÃÂdas, can take either a pathyÃÂ ("normal") form or one of several vipulÃÂ ("extended") forms. The form of the second foot of the first pÃÂda (II.) limits the possible patterns the first foot (I.) may assume.
The scheme below, given by Macdonell, shows his understanding of the form of the à Âloka in the classical period of Sanskrit literature (4thâÂÂ11th centuries CE):
In poems of the intermediate period, such as the Bhagavad Gita, a fourth vipulÃÂ is found. This occurs 28 times in the Bhagavad Gita, that is, as often as the third vipulÃÂ. When this vipulÃÂ is used, there is a word-break (caesura) after the fourth syllable:
Two rules that always apply are:
The pathyàand vipulàhalf-verses are arranged in the table above in order of frequency of occurrence. Out of 2579 half-verses taken from Kalidasa, Bharavi, Magha, and Bilhana, each of the four admissible forms of à Âloka in this order claims the following share: 2289, 116, 89, 85; that is, 89% of the half-verses have the regular pathyàform.
The various vipulÃÂs, in the order above, are known to scholars writing in English as the first, second, third and fourth vipulÃÂ, or the paeanic, choriambic, molossic, and trochaic vipulàrespectively. In Sanskrit writers, they are referred to as the na-, bha-, ma-, and ra-vipulÃÂ. A fifth vipulÃÂ, known as the minor Ionic, in which the first pÃÂda ends | u u â x |, is sometimes found in the MahÃÂbhÃÂrata, although rarely.
Macdonell's chart given above is in fact too restrictive with regard the first four syllables in a vipulàverse. For example, the first quarter verse of the RÃÂmayaá¹Âa (critical edition) contains a na-vipulàand scans â â â â â â â â (tapaḥsvÃÂdhyÃÂyanirataá¹Â). Other examples are easy to find among classical poets, e.g., RÃÂmacarita 1.76 manyur dehÃÂvadhir ayaá¹ â â â â â â â âÂÂ. In the ma-vipulÃÂ, a caesura is not obligatory after the fifth syllable, e.g., à Âià ÂupÃÂlavadha 2.1a yiyaká¹£amÃÂá¹ÂenÃÂhà «taḥ â â â â â â â âÂÂ.
Noteworthy is the avoidance of an iambic cadence in the first pÃÂda. By comparison, syllables 5âÂÂ8 of any pÃÂda in the old Vedic anuá¹£á¹Âubh metre typically had the iambic ending u â u x (where "x" represents an anceps syllable).
Statistical studies examining the frequency of the vipulÃÂs and the patterns in the earlier part of the pÃÂda have been carried out to try to establish the preferences of various authors for different metrical patterns. It is believed that this may help to establish relative dates for the poems, and to identify interpolated passages.
The Kannada à Âloka described by NÃÂgavarma I in his Chandombudhi allows any light (laghu) or heavy (guru) syllable in the first four and the eighth syllable, requires a light and heavy syllable in the fifth and sixth respectively, and alternates the seventh as long in odd-numbered pÃÂdas and short in even-numbered ones. The eighth syllable is often heavy, but it is not mandatory. NÃÂgavarma does say, however, that the seventh syllable may be also long across all four pÃÂdas, citing the practice of earlier poets.
A typical ' is the following, which opens the Bhagavad Gita:
From the period of high classical Sanskrit literature comes this benediction, which opens BÃÂá¹Âabhaá¹Âá¹Âa's biographical poem Hará¹£acaritam (7th century CE):
When a à Âloka is recited, performers sometimes leave a pause after each pÃÂda, at other times only after the second pÃÂda. (See External links.)
A Shloka has to be composed in a specific metre (chhanda), with a specific number of lines with a specific number of words per line, each word could be a mantra. For example, viá¹£á¹Âu sahastranÃÂma is in anuá¹£á¹Âup chhanda (two lines of four words each).
A mantra, on the other hand, is prefixed by omkara (primordial sound) and suffixed by the essential nama (name) and the salutary word nama (salutation) between the prefix and the suffix. No metre is prescribed. The lyrics in any VÃÂrnic or matric metres are shlokas, but stanzas from Vedic hymns are not shloka, despite it being a common mistake to think this.