Chandas in Bhagavad Gita

[Guest guest]

praNams Exalted Company of Advaitins,

 

My recent study of the Song of the Lord brought

me to the following passage in Page 8 of

" The Bhagavad Gita " by Winthrop Sargeant.

http://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Gita-Suny-Cultural-Perspectives/dp/0873958306

(I really think that it is a beautiful book, worth reading

by anyone who loves both Bhagavad Gita and Sanskrit.)

 

## The metre of most of stanzas of Bhagavad Gita is

## what is known as shloka metre, consisting of four

## lines of eight syllables each. The verse is blank, i.e.,

## there are no rhymes. There are however, a number of

## stanzas, particularly at dramatic moments, in

## which the tristubh metre, consisting of four lines of eleven

## syllables each, is used. The shloka is the all-purpose metre

## of Epics as well as much of poetry. The tristubh metre

## originated as the commonest metre of the Vedas, and is

## supposed to convey a warlike or powerful impression.

 

I think that Sargeant is referring to anusthubh when

he says " shloka metre " . Is this interpretation right? Further, is

this tristubh the same as tristubh in Vedic chandas? Here is

the Vedic Chandas rules:

 

Vedic tristubh 11-11-11-11 = 44

Vedic anusthubh 8-8-8-8 = 32

 

==

 

The above questions brought me to " Sadhaka Sanjivani "

by Swami Ramsukhdas. At the end of each chapter in the book

is detailed notes on the Chandas used in that particular chapter.

(It also has other details, like count of number of times words

like " uvacha " etc. have been used and further, it has a count of

number of syllables in each chapter!)

 

An analysis of the material at the this book led me to the

following observations:

 

Most of the verses in Gita are of anusthubh chandas. They are of the

Vipula chandas of na/ra/bha/ma/sa or jatipaksha or sankirna

variety or pathyavaktra-anusthup variety. The rest of the verses

are in upajati or indravraja/upendravraja chandas.

 

Here are the various uses of upajati metre

Ch# Verses

2 5-8,20,22,29,70

8 9,10,11

9 20,21

11 15-27, 30-44, 46-50

15 2-4

 

and here are the various uses of indravraja/upendravraja

 

Ch# Verses

8 28 is indravraja

11 28,29,45 are upendravraja

15 5,15 are indravraja

 

It would be interesting to know why Bhagavan Vyas used

these special chandas at these particular places. Is there any

deeper meaning to the use of these special chandas? Can

someone explain?

 

dhanyavaad

Ramakrishna

[Guest guest]

--- Ramakrishna Upadrasta <ramakrsn

wrote:

 

> It would be interesting to know why Bhagavan Vyas

> used

> these special chandas at these particular places. Is

> there any

> deeper meaning to the use of these special chandas?

> Can

> someone explain?

 

Shree Ramakrishna - praNAms.

 

Interesting info. My understanding is sloka format

normally refers to AnuShTup chandas as you pointed

out. AnushTup is easy to follow since it has four

quarters, as the emphasis is on the message rather the

literature. Since the communication is by word of

mouth, the meter is changed whenever some thing has to

be emphasized or for registering a change of topic

or to draw attention to some serious point of

discussion, where the student's attention is required.

 

 

When Shankara composes, he uses some specific meters

to capture the mind of the listeners. The

Dakshinamuurthy stotram for example is done is

Shaarduula vikriiditam -'ma sa ja sa ta ta ga' - It

runs like a tiger with grace and beauty.

'visvam darpaNa dRisyamaana nagarii tulam

nigantagatam' -

starts with 'ma' gaNa which has three gurus (heavy -

with a bang - like tiger taking a big leap to start)

and you should not stop anywhere in the middle until

you reach the end of the line. Commentary on that by

Sureshwara - maanasollasa - is done mostly in AnuShTup

since we need to understand what the tiger has done.

 

In Telugu lot more work has been done with chandas -

where the meters (like raagas) are selected to project

the proper moods of the characters.

But for Vedanta, emphasis is not on emotions but on

understanding. anuShTup is simple and best suited and

is used extensively.

Hari Om!

Sadananda