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Hinduism - What Is Chaupai?

 




("four-footed") Northern Indian poetry has a poetic form. The chaupai is made up of four lines, as its name implies. 



The rhyme scheme is aabb, which has led some to believe it is a two-line segment compound. 


Each line includes sixteen metric beats organized in a pattern of 6 + 4 + 4 + 2 based on the difference between “heavy” and “light” syllables. 

A heavy syllable has a lengthy vowel or consonant cluster and counts as two metric beats; all other syllables count as one beat. 

The chaupai is a major meter in bhakti (devotional) poetry and one of the most important meters in medieval Hindi literature, especially for larger narrative works. 

Its most famous use is in the Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas' retelling of the Ramayana. 





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