We saw that a Samavrttam has 4 quarters with equal Ganas. And we learnt how to find out the 'gaNaa' scheme of the verse by studying a quarter. There is an exception to this rule, and a special allowance is made for a metre belonging to samavrttam called 'anuShThup' (also known as 'shloka'). This metre has 8 syllables per quarter, or 32 syllables in all in the verse.

       There are so many varieties of this, that a general rule, rather than a gaNaa scheme, has been made for this metre. The rule is as follows :

श्लोके षष्टं गुरु ज्ञेयं सर्वत्र लघु पञ्चमं।
द्विचतुः पादयोर्ह्रस्वं सप्तमम् दीर्घमन्ययोः।।

       "In the shloka type of metre, 5th position shall have a short syllable and 6th a long syllable. The 7th syllable shall be short in the second and fourth quarters, and long in the first and third quarters."

        With this general rule, we shall try to identify a few varieties of this metre. But take care; this class of 8 syllables also has some other metres that are quite different from 'anuShThubh' and are proper 'samavrttam'. But how do we distinguish between this 'anuShThubh' and other metres? Simple. If you find that a verse has 8 syllables per quarter, first check to see whether its metre is 'anuShThubh', as this is the metre most commonly used. If the verse doesn't satisfy the rules for the 'anuShThubh' metre, then check for other metres.

( As an aside, here is an interesting incident. 'anushThup', also called as 'shloka', is believed to be the first ever metre to be handled by a poet. Sage Valmiki, who wrote the RamaayaNa, is said to have uttered the first ever verse in Sanskrit. It came about when he saw a hunter killing a bird which was playing with its mate. Saddened by the plight of the other bird, he cursed the hunter with a verse of this metre, even without his knowledge. As this verse was uttered in 'shoka' (Sanskrit for sorrow), this metre was named as 'shloka'.)

Now we shall look at an example for this metre. Consider this verse :

सरस्वती नमस्तुभ्यम् वरदे कामरूपिणी ।
विद्यारम्भम् करिष्यामि सिद्धिर्भवतु मे सदा ।।

Recite  Pause  Stop

The metre sounds familiar, doesn't it? Yes, most of the devotional verses in Sanskrit are composed in this metre, and that is the reason why any Sanskrit verse has come to be known as a shloka. Let's now apply our methods to see whether this verse is 'anuShThup' metre or not. Remember that the 5^th syllable is short, 6^th is long, and the 7^th syllable is alternately long and short.

                 sa  ras  va  tee  na  mas  tubh  yam       (I quarter)
                  1    2    3    4    5     6      7      8

                 va  ra  de  kaa  ma  roo  pi  Nee           (II quarter)
                  1    2    3    4    5      6    7     8

                 vid  yaa  ram  bham  ka  riSh  yaa  mi   (III quarter)
                   1      2      3     4      5     6      7    8

                 sid  dhir  bha  va  tu  me  sa  daa          (IV quarter)
                   1     2      3     4   5   6    7    8

As you can see, the 5th syllable of all the quarters ( na, ma, ka, tu) is always short, the 6th (mas, roo, riSh, me) is always long, the 7th syllable (tubh, pi, yaa, sa) is alternately long and short. So it satisfies the conditions required for 'anuShThup' metre. Moreover, note that the first 4 syllables are allowed to be of any pattern.

Let's take another one :

शुक्लाम्बरधरं विष्णुं शशिवर्णं चतुर्भुजम् ।
प्रसन्नवदनं ध्यायेत् सर्वविघ्नोपशान्तये ॥

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We can split the above verse as follows :

                 shuk  laam  bha  ra  dha  ram  viSh  Num    (I quarter)
                   1       2       3    4    5      6      7      8

                 sha  shi  var  Nam  cha  tur  bhu  jam        (II quarter)
                   1     2    3     4      5   6      7     8

                 pra  san  na  va  da  nam  dhyaa  yet          (III quarter)
                   1     2    3    4   5     6       7       8

                 sar  va  vigh  no  pa  shaan  ta  ye             (IV quarter)
                   1    2    3     4   5       6      7   8

Here again, we see that the 5^th position has only short syllables, the 6^th only long, and the 7^th has long and short syllables alternately. So, this belongs to 'anuShThup' metre.

(By the by, the verse that Valmiki uttered is given below. Verify that this verse belongs to anuSHThubh metre.)

मा निषाद प्रतिष्ठां त्वमगमः शाश्वतीः समाः ।
यत्क्रौंचमिथुनादेकमवधी काममोहितम् ।।

Recite  Pause  Stop

Now try out the verse given as the definition of 'shlokaa'. You will find it is itself in 'shlokaa' metre!

Let's take another verse :

चंचल चूडं चपलै: वत्सकुलै: केलिपरं ।
ध्याय सखे स्मेर मुखं नन्दसुतं माणवकं ।।

Recite  Pause  Stop

Split the first quarter :

                 chan cha la choo dam cha pa laiH
                    G     L   L    G     G     L   L    G

  As you can see, this quarter does not obey the 'anuShThubh' rules, as the 5^th syllable is long, and the 6th is short. So, this is a metre different from 'anuShThubh'. We can now apply our normal rules of samavrttam and find out the gaNaa scheme. For the above quarter, the grouping comes out as :
                        (G L L) (G G L) L G

The gaNaas corresponding to this are : bha, ta, la, ga.

This scheme is given the name माणवकम् (maaNavakam). So, we now know how to differentiate between a proper samavrttam, and the special metre 'anuShThup'.

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