Editing Metre (poetry) (section)

===Sanskrit===
{{Main|Sanskrit prosody|Vedic metre}}
Versification in Classical Sanskrit poetry is of three kinds.

#Syllabic ({{Transliteration|sa|akṣaravṛtta}}) metres depend on the number of syllables in a verse, with relative freedom in the distribution of light and heavy syllables. This style is derived from older Vedic forms. An example is the [[Anuṣṭubh]] metre found in the great epics, the [[Mahabharata]] and the [[Ramayana]], which has exactly eight syllables in each line, of which only some are specified as to length.
#Syllabo-quantitative ({{Transliteration|sa|varṇavṛtta}}) metres depend on syllable count, but the light-heavy patterns are fixed. An example is the [[Mandākrāntā metre]], in which each line has 17 syllables in a fixed pattern.
#Quantitative ({{Transliteration|sa|mātrāvṛtta}}) metres depend on duration, where each line has a fixed number of ''[[mora (linguistics)|morae]]'', grouped in feet with usually 4 ''morae'' in each foot. An example is the [[Arya metre]], in which each verse has four lines of 12, 18, 12, and 15 ''morae'' respectively. In each 4-''mora'' foot there can be two long syllables, four short syllables, or one long and two short in any order.

Standard traditional works on metre are Pingala's {{Transliteration|sa|Chandaḥśāstra}} and Kedāra's {{Transliteration|sa|Vṛttaratnākara}}. The most exhaustive compilations, such as the modern ones by Patwardhan and Velankar contain over 600 metres. This is a substantially larger repertoire than in any other metrical tradition.