Rola Chhand
Quick answer: Rola Chhand is a Hindi matrik metre of twenty four matras a line, split eleven and thirteen. Learn to count its beats, rhyme it, and build a Kundaliya.
Rola Chhand is one of the workhorse metres of Hindi and Braj poetry, a matrik chhand that measures twenty four matras in every line. Matrik simply means the metre counts beats, or matras, rather than syllables: a short sound weighs one, a long sound weighs two. Four such lines make a full rola, and a pause, the yati, falls after the eleventh beat, leaving thirteen to close the line. Poets have leaned on it for centuries because its long line carries a complete thought without hurrying.
You will meet rola most often as the tail of a Kundaliya, where it grows out of a preceding doha and carries the poem home. On its own it suits narration, moral reflection and the steady voice of the Bhakti and Riti poets. If you can already count matras for a doha, you are most of the way there, since the two share the same twenty four beat line and differ only in where they breathe.
Counting the twenty four matras
Everything in rola rests on counting matras. A laghu, a short vowel such as the sound in 'ka', counts as one matra. A guru, a long vowel or a syllable closed by a conjunct, counts as two. You read a line, mark each beat, and the total must reach twenty four. Because two laghu can stand in for one guru, the same count can be filled many ways, which is what gives the metre its flexibility. Train your ear on simple couplets first, then check the numbers on the page.
The eleven and thirteen break
The rola line divides eleven plus thirteen, with the yati, or caesura, after the eleventh matra. This is the mirror image of the doha, which runs thirteen then eleven. That single difference changes the music: the doha lands its weight early and resolves lightly, while rola opens gently and settles its meaning in the longer second half. Read your lines aloud and feel where the breath wants to fall. If the pause keeps landing in the wrong place, redistribute a word rather than forcing the count.
Rola and the Kundaliya
Rola rarely travels alone. Its most famous home is the Kundaliya, a six line form that begins with a doha and continues with four lines of rola. The final foot of the doha becomes the opening foot of the rola, and the whole poem ends on the same word it started with, coiling back like the snake the name suggests. If you want a clear target for practice, writing the rola half of a Kundaliya is the traditional route, and it teaches you to hand momentum from one metre to the next.
Making it sing today
Modern Hindi poets still reach for rola when they want a measured, almost conversational line that can hold an argument. Keep the vocabulary plain, let rhyme fall on natural word endings, and resist padding a line just to reach twenty four beats. If a thought needs more room, that is a cue for the next line, not a longer one. When a poem feels ready, Writory's monthly contest is a gentle place to test it, since entries run from the 1st to the 25th and every entrant sees their own score.
What poets can take from this
- Mark every matra with a pencil before you trust your ear; the count settles arguments.
- Remember the split is eleven then thirteen, the opposite of the doha.
- Use two laghu in place of a guru when you need to fill a beat cleanly.
- Read each line aloud to check the yati lands after the eleventh matra.
- Practise by writing the rola half of a Kundaliya to learn how metres hand over.
- Cut filler words, because a padded rola always sounds padded.
Try it yourself
Write a four line rola of twenty four matras each about a single ordinary object in your home, keeping the yati after the eleventh beat and letting the last line quietly state what the object taught you.
Questions
How many matras does a Rola Chhand have?
Each of the four lines carries twenty four matras, with a pause after the eleventh, giving an eleven plus thirteen division. Because it is a matrik metre you count beats, not syllables, so two short sounds can substitute for one long one.
What is the difference between a Rola and a Doha?
Both lines hold twenty four matras, but the doha breaks thirteen then eleven while the rola breaks eleven then thirteen. The doha is a two line couplet, whereas a full rola runs to four lines and often forms the second half of a Kundaliya.
Can I use Rola on its own or only in a Kundaliya?
You can absolutely write a standalone rola, and many devotional and narrative poems do. The Kundaliya is simply its most celebrated setting, where a doha flows into a rola and the poem circles back to its first word.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated September 2026.
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