Shloka orśloka (Sanskrit:श्लोकśloka, from the rootश्रुśru,lit. 'hear'[1][2]) in a broader sense, according to Monier-Williams's dictionary, is "any verse or stanza; a proverb, saying";[3] but in particular it refers to the 32-syllable verse, derived from theVedicanuṣṭubh metre, used in theBhagavad Gita and many other works of classical Sanskrit literature.[4]
In its usual form it consists of fourpādas or quarter-verses, of eight syllables each,[5] or (according to an alternative analysis) of two half-verses of 16 syllables each.[2] The metre is similar to theVedicanuṣṭubh metre, but with stricter rules.
Theśloka is the basis forIndian epic poetry, and may be considered the Indian verse formpar excellence, occurring as it does far more frequently than any other metre in classicalSanskrit poetry.[2] Theśloka is the verse-form generally used in theMahabharata, theRamayana, thePuranas,Smritis, and the scientific treatises of Hinduism such asSushruta Samhita andCharaka Samhita.[6][7][8] TheMahabharata, for example, features many verse metres in its chapters, but 95% of the stanzas areślokas of theanuṣṭubh type, and most of the rest aretristubhs.[9]
Theanuṣṭubh is found in Vedic texts, but its presence is minor, andtriṣṭubh andgāyatrī metres dominate in theRigveda.[10] A dominating presence ofślokas in a text is a marker that the text is likely post-Vedic.[7]
The traditional view is that this form of verse was involuntarily composed byVālmīki, the author of theRāmāyaṇa, in grief on seeing a hunter shoot down one of two birds in love.[3] On seeing the sorrow (śoka) of the widowed bird, he was reminded of the sorrow Sītā felt on being separated from Shri Rama and began composing the Ramayana in shlokas. For this he is called the Ādikavi (first poet.)[11]
In addition to the Sanskritśloka, several Indian vernacular languages utilize this form in themaṅgaḷācaraṇam, a set of benedictory verses that precede a work of poetry or technical writing.
Each 16-syllablehemistich (half-verse), of two 8-syllablepādas, can take either apathyā ("normal") form or one of severalvipulā ("extended") forms. The form of the secondfoot of the firstpāda (II.) limits the possible patterns the first foot (I.) may assume.
The scheme below, given by Macdonell, shows his understanding of the form of theśloka in the classical period of Sanskrit literature (4th–11th centuries CE):
In poems of the intermediate period, such as theBhagavad Gita, a fourthvipulā is found. This occurs 28 times in the Bhagavad Gita, that is, as often as the thirdvipulā.[12] When thisvipulā is used, there is a word-break (caesura) after the fourth syllable:[13]
Two rules that always apply are:[13]
Thepathyā andvipulā half-verses are arranged in the table above in order of frequency of occurrence. Out of 2579 half-verses taken fromKalidasa,Bharavi,Magha, andBilhana, each of the four admissible forms ofśloka in this order claims the following share: 2289, 116, 89, 85;[14] that is, 89% of the half-verses have the regularpathyā form.
The variousvipulās, in the order above, are known to scholars writing in English as the first, second, third and fourthvipulā,[15] or thepaeanic,choriambic,molossic, andtrochaicvipulā respectively.[16] In Sanskrit writers, they are referred to as thena-,bha-,ma-, andra-vipulā.[13] A fifthvipulā, known as the minor Ionic, in which the firstpāda ends | u u – x |, is sometimes found in theMahābhārata, although rarely.[17]
Macdonell's chart given above is in fact too restrictive with regard the first four syllables in avipulā verse. For example, the first quarter verse of theRāmayaṇa (critical edition) contains ana-vipulā and scans ⏑ – – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – (tapaḥsvādhyāyanirataṃ). Other examples are easy to find among classical poets, e.g.,Rāmacarita 1.76manyur dehāvadhir ayaṃ – – – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ –. In the ma-vipulā, a caesura is not obligatory after the fifth syllable, e.g.,Śiśupālavadha 2.1ayiyakṣamāṇenāhūtaḥ ⏑ – ⏑ – – – – –.
Noteworthy is the avoidance of an iambic cadence in the firstpāda. By comparison, syllables 5–8 of anypāda in the old Vedicanuṣṭubh metre typically had the iambic ending u – u x (where "x" represents ananceps syllable).
Statistical studies examining the frequency of thevipulās and the patterns in the earlier part of thepāda 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.[18][19]
The Kannadaśloka described by Nāgavarma I in hisChandombudhi 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-numberedpādas and short in even-numbered ones.[20] The eighth syllable is often heavy, but it is not mandatory. Nāgavarma does say, however, that the seventh syllable may be also long across all fourpādas, citing the practice of earlier poets.
A typicalśloka is the following, which opens theBhagavad Gita:
From the period of high classical Sanskrit literature comes this benediction, which opensBāṇabhaṭṭa's biographical poemHarṣacaritam (7th century CE):
When aśloka is recited, performers sometimes leave a pause after eachpāda, at other times only after the secondpāda. (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, viṣṇu sahastranāma is in anuṣṭup 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 wordnama (salutation) between the prefix and the suffix. No metre is prescribed. The lyrics in any Vārnic or matric metres are shlokas, but stanzas from Vedic hymns are not shloka, despite it being a common mistake to think this.[22]
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