तक़्ती · Learn
From the two atoms of sound to the great metres — and real ghazals broken down syllable by syllable.
Measuring a line
A ghazal is sung, so every misra must fall into a steady rhythm — a bahr. Taqti is the act of weighing a line: breaking it into light and heavy syllables and checking whether their pattern matches a bahr. The first rule is the only rule: count by how a word is spoken, not by how it is spelt.
New to the forms — ghazal, nazm, geet — and the parts of a ghazal (matla, radeef, qaafiya, takhallus)? Those live in काव्य-शास्त्र · Kāvya-Shāstra. This primer is about the metre itself.
Laghu & Guru
A short, light syllable — a lone open short vowel: क, सु, न.
A long, heavy syllable — a long vowel (सो, पा) or a short vowel closed by a consonant (हम, जब).
Breaking a line (misra) into its light and heavy syllables and matching the pattern to a bahr. Taqti counts by how a word is spoken, not by how it is spelt.
The study of poetic metre — the rules by which a misra is weighed and a bahr identified.
The two weights every syllable carries. A short, light syllable is laghu (1); a long, heavy one is guru (2). Every pattern is built from just these two.
A single spoken sound — mutaharrik (voweled) or saakin (silent). Syllables are made of these.
A sabab is a two-sound unit (one voweled + one silent = a guru), a watad a three-sound unit. The rukns are built by chaining sababs and watads.
A fixed little pattern of 1s and 2s — a metrical foot. फ़ाइलातुन = 2122. A bahr is a sequence of these feet.
The full pattern a line obeys — a sequence of arkaan, e.g. रमल = फ़ाइलातुन ×4 = 2122 2122 2122 2122.
A bahr whose rukns are all in their original, unaltered form. The 'root' metres.
A permitted alteration of a rukn — dropping a syllable, shortening one, and so on. Zihafs are how new metres are derived from the roots.
A rukn or bahr produced by applying a zihaf to a salim one. Most bahrs you hear in ghazals are muzahif (derived), not salim.
How many rukns a sher carries: murabba = 2 per misra, musaddas = 3, musamman = 4. (So रमल मुसम्मन = फ़ाइलातुन four times per line.)
Named modifications: mahzoof drops the final syllable of the last rukn, makhboon drops the 2nd, maqtu shortens the end. A bahr's full name lists the zihafs it uses.
A bahr built from two different rukns alternating (e.g. ख़फ़ीफ़, मुज्तस, मुज़ारे). Always counted among the derived metres.
Arkaan — the metrical feet
Chaining the atoms gives fixed feet (arkaan). Eight of them are the roots (salim); every bahr is these feet repeated or combined.
Zihaf & the bahr
A bahr is a line's full pattern — a sequence of arkaan. When every foot is in its pure form, the bahr is salim (original). Apply a zihaf — a permitted trim or shortening of a foot — and you get a muzahif (derived) bahr. Most ghazal metres are derived.
Famous bahrs
The pure hazaj — मुफ़ाईलुन four times. Ghalib's “हज़ारों ख़्वाहिशें ऐसी…” rides this root metre.
फ़ऊलुन four times — a galloping, open metre. Iqbal's “सितारों से आगे…”.
The pure ramal — फ़ाइलातुन four times.
मुस्तफ़इलुन four times — a firm, marching root metre.
Ramal with the last foot shortened (hazf): 2122 2122 2122 212. One of the most-used ghazal metres.
Hazaj with the final foot dropped to फ़ऊलुन — the metre of countless film ghazals.
A compound metre of two different feet, with khabn + hazf. Ghalib's “कोई उम्मीद बर नहीं आती”.
A compound, much-loved metre. Faiz's “गुलों में रंग भरे बाद-ए-नौबहार चले”.
A stately compound metre built on मफ़ऊल openings.
Famous ghazals in taqti
An original (salim) metre — मुफ़ाईलुन ×4. No foot is modified.
Also salim — फ़ऊलुन ×4, a pure root metre.
A derived (muzahif) compound metre — khabn + hazf applied to ख़फ़ीफ़.
Same derived metre — and the opening carries an izafat (दिल-ए-नादाँ).
A derived compound metre; the line also uses the izafat बाद-ए-नौबहार.
Every breakdown above is scanned live by the engine. See many more in ग़ज़लें जो गीत बनीं · ghazals that became songs →, or try your own on the Taqti tool →