Pali Poetry and Metre
Scanning syllables
Pali metre counts syllable weight, not stress. A syllable is laghu (L) when its vowel is short and not followed by a conjunct consonant; it is guru (G) when the vowel is long, or when a short vowel is followed by a conjunct, anusvāra or visarga. A gaṇa is a group of three syllables.
Common metres
Anuṭṭhubha (śloka) has four pādas of eight syllables, 32 in all; it is the commonest metre in the Dhammapada. Tuṭṭhubha has 11 syllables per pāda (44), and Jagatī has 12 per pāda (48). Identify the metre by counting one pāda first, then check the others. In anuṭṭhubha the cadence often shows a laghu at the fifth and a guru at the sixth syllable of the even pādas, but Pali allows vipulā variants, so count before you label.
Worked example
Sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā. Scan: sab-be (L-L), saṅ-khā (G-G), rā (G), a-nic-cā (L-G-G). That is eight syllables, so the pāda belongs to the anuṭṭhubha family. The conjuncts -bb-, -ṅkh- and -cc- make the preceding short vowels guru; do not count the conjunct as an extra syllable.
Traps
Do not count a conjunct as two syllables; do not treat anusvāra as weightless; do not assume every verse is anuṭṭhubha; do not confuse a pāda with a full line or a verse. If a count gives 11 or 12, check tuṭṭhubha or jagatī before forcing anuṭṭhubha.