Urdu Prosody in the Contemporary Context - अक्षर्

In an earlier post, I outlined my initial thoughts on Urdu prosody. Here I begin to develop a formalism which is better suited to the contemporary context and completely divested from any dependence on the Arabic script.

The Syllable

The notion of syllable is quite intuitive and generally needs no explanation. However, it is the details concerning syllabification & scansion of words that become hairy. In what follows, I'll discuss syllables in Urdu poetry. Scansion is dealt with later.

Very simply:

1. Every word can be dissected into multiple syllables.
2. The first syllable in the word may begin with a vowel (i.e. no consonants) or with one or more consonants.
   
3. Each internal syllable begins with a single consonant and contains a single vowel (or glide). This is crucial.
   
4. The last syllable may end in multiple consonants.

Note that the number of syllables in a word is equal to the number of vowels (or glides) in the word.

Some examples follow to make this clear. It is highly probable that the syllabification below aligns with one's intuitive feel.

kiyA = ki + yA (किया = कि + या)
karnA = kar + nA (कर्-ना = कर् + ना)
gardan = gar + dan (गर्दन् = गर् + दन्)
pyAsA = pyA + sA (प्यासा = प्या + सा)
kShatriya = kShat + ri + ya (क्षत्रिय = क्षत् + रि + य)
ChandramukHI = Chand + ra + mu + kHI (चन्द्रमुखी = चन्द् + र + मु + खी)
pradyumna = prad + yum + na (प्रद्युम्न = प्रद् + युम् + न)
dH.rtarAShtra = dH.r + ta + rASht + ra (धृतराष्ट्र = धृ + त + राष्ट् + र)

The astute reader would have noticed

1. Consonant clusters in a word demarcate syllables.
2. The last consonant in a consonant cluster begins the next syllable.

Once again, these are the rules of syllabification in the context of Urdu poetry and will not apply directly to other languages (e.g. Sanskrit).

Syllable Classification

Syllables can generally be classified as Open or Closed. Open syllables are those that terminate in vowels. Closed syllables, on the other hand, terminate in a consonant.

Syllables can also be defined as Long or Short depending on whether the vowel is long or short and whether there is a consonant following the vowel.

Taken together, we have the following taxonomy defined as below solely to simplify the task of formalizing Urdu prosody. There is no need to remember these terms since they won't be encountered again. However, the basic idea behind the classification should be understood.

1. Short Closed - This is a single consonant cluster. Obviously it cannot be pronounced, but needs to be defined for the sake of completeness.
   Examples are k, g, j, tr, py, tl, etc..
   
   
2. Short Open - This is a Short vowel optionally preceded by a Short Closed syllable.
   Examples are a, ka, gi, ju, tra, pyi, tlu, etc..
   
   
3. Long Closed - This is a Short Open syllable followed by a single consonant. In other words, a short vowel with a following consonant.
   Examples are ag, kar, gin, jut, tram, pyik, tlum, etc..
   
   
4. Long Open - This is a Long vowel optionally preceded by a Short Closed syllable.
   Examples are A, kA, gI, jU, trA, pyI, tlU, etc..
   

Urdu prosody does not distinguish between the Open and Closed forms of the syllable! Hence, the only distinction that we need to maintain is between Short and Long. In other words, as far as Urdu prosody is concerned, kA is equivalent to jut. (There are exceptions, obviously, but let us not muddy the waters right now.)

Long syllables which are followed by consonant clusters are considered as a combination of one Long and one Short syllable instead of being treated as a single syllable. For example,

kAr = kA+r
bAndH = bA+ndH
barg = bar+g

Notation

Discussion on Urdu prosody is facilitated by denoting Short syllables as S and Long syllables as L. As an example of use of this notation, consider the syllabification of the list that appeared early on above.

kiyA = ki+yA = S+L
karnA = kar+nA = L+L
gardan = gar+dan = L+L
pyAsA = pyA+sA = L+L
kShatriya = kShat+ri+ya = L+S+S
ChandramukHI = (Chan+d)+ra+mu+kHI = (LS)+S+S+L
pradyumna = prad+yum+na = L+L+S
dH.rtarAShtra = dH.r+ta+(rA+Sht)+ra = S+S+(LS)+S

Thus, any word can be represented by an equivalent string of L & S symbols. This abstraction is ultimately useful in determining if a given line is congruent to a given meter or not.

In subsequent posts, I'll discuss the various meters commonly used in Urdu poetry and the details of prosodic scansion.

Urdu Prosody in the Contemporary Context - मुक़द्दमः

Urdu prosody is perceived by many 'in the business' as a daunting task when in reality it should be almost trivial. The situation is exacerbated because many practising and established Urdu poets confess that they have no idea of how the underlying processes in Urdu prosody actually work even though they do have an innate understanding of whether a particular line is metrically acceptable or not. Partially as a result of this, it is difficult for them to impart their knowledge of prosody in concrete terms to fledgeling poets without hand-waving away many of the questions/objections that are raised as part of the learning process.

It is also significant that Urdu prosody derives substantially from Arabic prosody. All the terminologies, rules, and exceptions are still rooted in the Arabic context and heavily dependent on the Arabic script in turn.

In my mind, prosody should be defined independently of the script(s) used. Urdu prosody should be no exception. Ultimately, prosody is rooted in the phonology of the language whereas a script is simply a mnemonic approximation to represent the sounds of the language.

It certainly doesn't help an Urdu speaker who is unacquainted with Arabic orthography if the technical terms of prosody are intimately tied to the signs in the Arabo-Perso-Urdu script. Add the fact that the significant majority of the Indian population is completely unaware of even the rudimentary basics of the Arabic script - I'm only talking about the literate masses here - and one begins to comprehend why the prevailing feeling, that Urdu prosody is best avoided, is justified. (There are other socio-political factors that have created a 'false' dichotomy between Urdu & Hindi as two separate linguistic entities, but it is not my purpose to discuss them here.)

Urdu prosody needs to be disassociated from its dependence on the Arabic script.

What makes it worse, even for those who have grappled with Urdu prosody and internalized it, is that quite a number of the extant rules of Urdu prosody are no longer relevant in the phonological context of (modern) Urdu! But the establishment hasn't been able to cast-off its Arabic heritage and adopt criteria that better fit the Urdu context. Urdu prosody is, veritably, a dinosaur of the middle-ages and in serious need of evolution.

Urdu prosody needs to be redefined in terms of (modern) Urdu phonology with appropriate guidelines on how to extend it to future terms, words, and idioms.

In and of itself, the Arabic definitions are overly complicated in my opinion. The Arabic model may have succeeded in unifying the commonly used meters in Arabic poetry under a single umbrella-theory, but it is completely unnecessary. Eventually, when one gets down to it, there is no rationale within the model to justify why only a tiny sliver of meters generated from a parent template are acceptable while the vast majority of others aren't. One might as well jump directly to the acceptable meters and skip the obscuring fog in between.

As a taxonomical device though the Arabic model is quite something. But is the comprehension cost of the model justified when it comes to practice of Urdu poetry? Not in my mind. The Arabic model remains an academic artefact.

In subsequent posts I'll attempt to present what I think is a better way of imparting the secrets of Urdu prosody based purely on the phonetics of (modern) Urdu and on the Urdu definition of long/short syllables. Analogous to Bhatkhande's plan in Hindustani music, Urdu meters will be treated as instances of temperament groups classified on the basis of syllable arrangements. It is my hope that this will give a clearer understanding of what the individual meters are and how to intuitively scan a line.

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Follow-up posts

- अक्षर्

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