Tristubh

triṣṭubh (Sanskrit: त्रिष्टुभ्,, IPA: [trɪˈʂʈubʱ]) is the name of fi (four padas of eleven syllables each), or any hymn composed in this meter. It is the most prevalent meter of the Rigveda, accounting for roughly 40% of its verses.

The tristubh pada contains a "break" or caesura, after either four or five syllables, necessarily at a word-boundary and if possible at a syntactic break, followed by either three or two short syllables. The final four syllables form a trochaic cadence. For example RV 2.3.1:

a sámiddho agnír níhitaḥ pṛthivyâm

b pratyáṅ víśvāni bhúvanān_iy asthāt

c hótā pāvakáḥ pradívaḥ sumedhâ

d devó devân yajat_uv agnír árhan

"Agni is set upon the earth well kindled / he standeth in the presence of all beings. / Wise, ancient, God, the Priest and Purifier / let Agni serve the Gods for he is worthy." (trans. Griffith; note that the translator attempts to imitate the meter in English)

Is to be read metrically as

a υ----,υυ|-υ-x

b ----υ,υυ|-υ-x

c ---υ-,υυ|-υ-x

d ----,υυυ|-υ-x

with , marking the caesura and | separating the cadence:

a sámiddho agnír , níhi|taḥ pṛthivyâm

b pratyáṅ víśvāni , bhúva|nāni asthāt

c hótā pāvakáḥ , pradí|vaḥ sumedhâ

d devó devân , yajatu|agnír árhan

The Avesta has a parallel stanza of 4x11 syllables with a caesura after the fourth syllable.

Tristubh verses are also used in later literature, its archaic associations used to press home a "Vedic" character of the poetry. The Bhagavad Gita, while mostly composed in shloka (developed from the Vedic Anustubh^[1]) is interspersed with Tristubhs, for example in the passage beginning at chapter 11, verse 15, when Arjuna begins speaking in Tristubhs.

Notes

References

• E.V. Arnold, Vedic Metre in its Historical Development, 1905
• E.W Hopkins, The Great Epic of India, 1901