Gaṇas

The standard way of analyzing Sanskrit meter is through the use of the gaṇa, which is a block of three syllables. We split each line into blocks of 3, describe the syllables in each block, and take care of anything at the end. The gaṇa system was first introduced in the Chandaḥśāstra.

Since every syllable is either heavy or light, a group of 3 syllables can follow one of eight patterns. Accordingly, there are eight different gaṇas to describe these patterns. Each is named with a different letter:

gaṇa

Pattern

ya

L-G-G

ma

G-G-G

ta

G-G-L

ra

G-L-G

ja

L-G-L

bha

G-L-L

na

L-L-L

sa

L-L-G

Here, G stands for guru and represents a heavy syllable. L stands for laghu and represents a light syllable. Actually, the Sanskrit ga and la are used just like the syllables above.

Term

Pattern

ga

G

la

L

Those of you who have studied meter in other languages might be tempted to draw correspondences to metrical feet like iambs ("short-long") and spondees ("long-long"). Please do not make the mistake of doing so! Metrical feet tend to describe the cadence or natural divisions of a meter (as in iambic pentameter: But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?, which would be ja ra ja ga in the gaṇa system), but a gaṇa is just a device for describing the weight of different syllables. Thus the gaṇa system creates unintuitive breaks, as you can see in the example below.

An Example

With these terms in hand, we can describe any Sanskrit verse with great concision. For example, here is an analysis of the first verse of the Bhagavad Gita:

• dharmakṣetre kurukṣetre
  dhar-mak-ṣet-re-ku-ruk-ṣet-re
  G-G-G G-L-G G G
  ma ra ga ga
• samavetā yuyutsavaḥ
  sa-ma-ve-tā-yu-yut-sa-vaḥ
  L-L-G G-L-G L G
  sa ra la ga
• māmakāḥ pāṇḍavāścaiva
  mā-ma-kāḥ-pāṇ-ḍa-vāś-cai-va
  G-L-G G-L-G G L
  ra ra ga la
• kim akurvata saṃjaya
  ki-ma-kur-va-ta-saṃ-ja-ya
  L-L-G L-L-G L G
  sa sa la ga

A handy mnemonic

A mnemonic is a sort of trick that makes it easier for us to remember information. One particularly handy mnemonic for the gaṇas is yamātārājabhānasalagāḥ. Through this mnemonic, we can remember the names of all of the gaṇas.

But how? It's actually quite simple. We find the name of the gaṇa we want and consider it alongside the two syllables that follow it. Together, these three syllables express the quality of the gaṇa. For example, suppose we want to find the definition of the ra gaṇa. We find the letter r in the mnemonic and consider it alongside the next two syllables, giving us rājabhā. The meter of these three syllables is G-L-G, and this is the meter of the ra gaṇa.

Similarly, the mnemonic also encodes the light syllable la and the heavy syllable ga.