When Meters Meet

When it comes to grammar, I am neither an expert nor a nerd. So I am going to be very simplistic in this post. I will try my best to not make this blog post look like a page in a textbook. Hopefully you will enjoy it.

Since I am going to talk about the similarity of a Marathi Poetic meter with an Urdu meter, I need to give some basics about meter for the benefit of those who may not be familiar with it. Side note : I live in the USA, and I will use the spelling ‘meter’ as opposed to ‘metre’. Deal with it :-)

What is meter? Meter is what gives a rhythm to a poem. Side note : In my opinion, that’s the difference between prose and poetry. Now, if you are upset at that statement, please note that, it’s just my opinion on my blog. Let’s move on. :-)

How does a meter give rhythm to a poem? In a nutshell, meter defines how the sounds of the words in a poem should be sequenced. An appropriate sequence naturally leads to a rhythm.

From the metrical viewpoint, there are only 2 types of sounds called मात्रा (maatraa). Short and long. They roughly correspond to the time it takes for us to pronounce those sounds. For example, short vowels are considered short sounds, and long vowels are considered long sounds. Side note : This is a simplistic statement. There are more elaborate rules and exceptions, but I am going to skip them.

Some examples will make it clear. Words such as नमन (naman) and सुमन (suman) have 3 short sounds and are counted as “1 1 1”. The word किनारा (kinaaraa) has 1 short sound, followed by 2 long sounds and is counted as “ 1 2 2”. With that, it should be easy to see that सामान (saamaan) is “2 2 1” and दीवाना (deewaanaa) is “2 2 2”. Side note : In Marathi the notation used for this is either with symbols U for short sound and - for long sounds, or ल for लघु (short) sound and गा for गुरु (long) lounds. So किनारा (kinaaraa) would be noted at “U - -” or “ल गा गा”. I am going to use “1 2 2” as it’s simple to write in a blog, and easier for people unfamiliar with this topic.

Now let’s look at a meter (वृत्त vritta) that is extremely familiar to all Marathi speaking people, even if some may not be aware of it. It’s called भुजंगप्रयात (bhujang-prayaat). The definition of this meter says, that every line (ओळ / पंक्ति / मिस्रा) must follow the following format.

1 2 2   -   1 2 2   -  1 2 2  -  1 2 2

That means, every line in the poem needs to have 4 groups (गण) and each group must have a sequence of 3 sounds, and these sounds must be in the sequence “short long long”. Which mean each group has 5 मात्रा (metrical count) and each line will exactly have 20 मात्रा (metrical count). Let’s look at a very famous example.

IMPORTANT NOTE : I am writing the words as we say it, not exactly as we write it. And I have broken them down so that they match the metrical groups.

1 2  2           1 2 2          1 2 2         1 2 2

सदा सर       वदा यो         ग तूझा       घडावा 

तुझे का        रणे   दे         ह माझा     पडावा 

उपेक्षू           नको  गू        णवंता       अनंता 

रघू ना          यका मा        गणे हे        चि आता

Note : Some poetic license has been taken to adjust the spellings to match the meter. For example तूझा (toozaa) has been used instead of तुझा (tuzaa). The count of अनंता is indeed 1 2 2, but I have skipped that discussion.

This and all such hymns written by the great Saint Shree Samarth Raamdaas Swaami are in this meter. As kids we all learned these मनाचे श्लोक (hymns of mind). 

Now the advantage of the meter should be obvious. Everyone sings these hymns in the same tune / rhythm. It is perhaps THE most familiar metrical rhythm in Maharashtra. Because of the rhythm it becomes easy to recite, and easy to memorize.

Here is my attempt at reciting this श्लोक (hymn).

Now if you are familiar with how to recite this rhythm, and you come across a poem that you can recite in this exact same rhythm, there is a good chance that the poem is also in the same meter. Of course more scrutiny would be needed to be exactly sure, but you get a starting point without having to go through the difficulty of counting and grouping.

How about an example from Urdu poetry? Try reciting these in the same tune as मनाचे श्लोक above. It will comfortably fit the following couplets.

I have to start with a GHaalib sher :-)

बना कर फ़क़ीरों का हम भेस ग़ालिब     banaa kar fakiroN ka ham bhes GHaalib

तमाशा-ए-अहल-ए करम देखते हैं         tamaahaa-e-ahl-e-karam dekhate hai

Note : I am NOT recommending to use this tune for reciting an Urdu sher. It’s done only to illustrate the similarity of the meters. Please do not recite Urdu shaayari like this :-)

ग़ज़ल उसने छेड़ी मुझे साज़ देना    ghazal usne chheRi mujhe saaz dena

ज़रा उम्रे-रफ़्ता को आवाज़ देना     zara umr-e-raftaa ko aawaaz denaa

(Safi Lakhnawi)

तिरि आरज़ू है अगर जुर्म कोई        tiri aarazoo hai agar jurm koi

तो इस जुर्म की मैं सज़ा चाहता हूँ    to is jurm ki maiN sazaa chaahataa huN

(Hasrat Mohani)

Now let’s look at a very famous song, written by Jaan Nissar Akhtar. Yes, you can absolutely recite it in the tune of मनाचे श्लोक. It fits perfectly.

यह दिल और उनकी निगाहों के साये 

मुझे घेर लेते हैं बाहों के साये 

Interesting, isn’t it? You can use the tune of मनाचे श्लोक to recite Urdu GHazals!! Does it mean that these GHazals are in भुजंगप्रयात वृत्त (bhujang-prayaat meter)? No. Absolutely not. There are subtle but very important differences.

Marathi meters are based on Sanskrit meters, which trace their origin to महर्षी वाल्मिकि (Maharishi Valimiki). According to the legend he composed the अनुष्टुभ छंद (anushtubha chhand) spontaneously in pain after seeing a hunter kill a couple of mating birds. By the way, श्रीमद भगवतगीता (Shreemad Bhagwatgeeta) is in the same अनुष्टुभ छंद (anushtubha chhand).

Urdu meters are based on Arabic meters, which are credited to the genius KHalil ibn Ahmed who resided in Basra (now in Iraq) in the 8th century. One of the meters he defined is called मुतक़ारीब मुसम्मन सालिम (mutqaarib musamman saalim). It’s one of the fundamental meters. It has exactly the same metrical count sequence “1 2 2   1 2 2   1 2 2   1 2 2” as भुजंगप्रयात वृत्त (bhujang-prayaat meter). That’s the reason why the same tune fits. But that’s where the similarity ends. Let’s look at an example.

1      2       2          1   2    2           1   2   2           1   2   2

यह   दिल औ          र उन   की         नि  गा  हों        के सा  ये 

मु     झे     घे           र   ले    ते           हैं  बा   हों        के  सा  ये 

The differences can be clearly seen now. In भुजंगप्रयात वृत्त (bhujang-prayaat meter), when a sound of 2 मात्रा (metrical count) is needed, the only allowed sound is a long sound. In the corresponding Urdu meter मुतक़ारीब मुसम्मन सालिम (mutqaarib musamman saalim) when a sound of 2 is needed - you are allowed to use 2 short sounds. For example दिल above.

The second important difference is the way Urdu meter counting is done. As far as I know, the word हैं (haiN) will never be allowed to be counted as 1 in Marathi. But the Urdu meters are more in conversanalist style, and at that place if the sound really acts like a short sound, the poet has the liberty to count it as such.

Because of the restrictions placed by the भुजंगप्रयात वृत्त (bhujang-prayaat meter), it is categorized in Marathi as अक्षरगणवृत्त (akshar-gan-vritta), where not just the count of maatraa, but also the count of letters need to be exact - 12 in this case. And they have to be in the exact same sequence. This is a significant restriction and in my opinion, makes it tougher to write in this meter, and also easier for the reader to figure out. So next time you recite मनाचे श्लोक, give some credit to the poetic prowess of Samartha Raamdaas Swami as well, in addition to his moral teachings.

Not all Marathi वृत्त (meters) are this restrictive. Many popular meters are called मात्रावृत्त where the letter sequence is not restrictive and only the total मात्रा (count) and their division in groups are more important factors.

I found the similarity of these 2 meters, which originated independently in different regions at different times, very interesting. Being able to recite a GHaalib ghazal in the tune of hymns composed by Shree Samarth is something that I realized only recently. Hope it was as interesting to you.