Varnik Chhand
Quick answer: Varnik chhand explained: Hindi and Sanskrit metres built by counting varnas, with ghanakshari, savaiya, model verses and the varnik vs matrik difference.
A varnik chhand is a metre measured by counting varnas, the written syllables, in each line. Where a matrik chhand asks how much time a line takes to say, a varnik chhand asks how many syllables it contains, and in the stricter Sanskrit forms, exactly which of those syllables must be light and which heavy. The doha is matrik; the ghanakshari, with its fixed thirty-one varnas per charan, is varnik. If you can count aksharas on your fingers, you already own the core skill.
The term sits at the centre of every Hindi grammar and literature syllabus, because the varnik and matrik distinction is the first question examiners reach for. It also matters to working poets. Syllable-counted forms give a line a firm architecture, the way a haiku's seventeen sounds do in Japanese, and the great varnik chhands of Hindi, the kavitt and the savaiya above all, produced some of the most muscular verse the language has ever heard.
First, Count the Varnas
A varna, for metrical purposes, is one akshara: a consonant with its vowel, spoken as a single unit. Vowel signs do not add to the count, and a conjunct such as ksha or pra counts as one varna, not two, because it is written and spoken as one syllable block. Long and short syllables count equally; a heavy 'kaa' and a light 'ka' are each one varna.
Try a line of eight: 'chandaa kii kiran girii', the moon's ray fell. Count the blocks: chan, daa, kii, ki, ra, n plus its vowel, gi, rii. Eight varnas, whatever their individual weights. That indifference to weight at the counting stage is the signature of the varnik family, and it is exactly where beginners trip, because in matrik counting the same line would score differently, with every long syllable worth two.
Two Flavours: Free Count and Fixed Order
Manuals do not all slice the terminology the same way, so it helps to say this plainly. In the loosest sense, a varnik chhand only fixes the number of varnas per charan. The Hindi ghanakshari works like this: thirty-one syllables with pauses after the eighth, sixteenth and twenty-fourth, but no prescribed sequence of light and heavy.
The stricter Sanskrit varna vrittas fix the count and the order. Indravajra, for example, is always eleven syllables arranged as two ta ganas, a ja gana and two final heavies; every line of every indravajra verse ever written follows that exact template. Hindi textbooks often gather both kinds under the single heading varnik chhand, and an exam answer that notes the distinction, count-only versus count-plus-sequence, tends to stand out.
The Chhands Worth Knowing by Name
You do not need fifty names; you need the handful that recur in papers and in real poetry. These cover most questions you will ever face:
Where You Will See It
The riti period of Hindi poetry, roughly the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is the varnik chhand's golden age. Senapati built his reputation on the kavitt. Bhushan used its pounding phrase-groups for war poetry in praise of Shivaji, verse designed to be roared in court rather than murmured in a study. Padmakar and Dev handled the same frame with silk instead of iron, filling it with the colours of the seasons and of shringar.
Earlier and elsewhere, Tulsidas alternated kavitt and savaiya through the Kavitavali, proof that the forms could carry devotion as well as display. Raskhan's savaiyas on Krishna remain some of the most quoted stanzas in Braj Bhasha. And behind all of them stands the Sanskrit inheritance: Kalidasa's mandakranta clouds, the shardulavikridita flourishes that still open formal Sanskrit compositions today.
Varnik vs Matrik: The Question Every Paper Asks
The distinction is simple once you anchor it to counting units. Matrik chhands count matras, beats of spoken time, so a heavy syllable is worth two and a light one. Varnik chhands count varnas, written syllable blocks, so heavy and light each count once. A doha charan of thirteen matras might contain anywhere from seven to thirteen syllables depending on their weights; a ghanakshari charan contains thirty-one syllables, full stop.
A quick self-test: scan any line both ways. If the form's definition stays satisfied when you swap a heavy syllable for two lights, you are in matrik territory, because the time adds up the same. If that swap breaks the form by changing the syllable count, the chhand is varnik. Examiners love this because it cannot be bluffed; either you counted correctly or you did not.
Composing One Yourself
Start small and physical. Choose an eight-varna phrase pattern and clap once per syllable as you draft, keeping your phrases inside the claps. Write four such groups and you have the skeleton of a ghanakshari charan minus its final tail. The clapping sounds childish and works wonderfully; the body counts better than the eye.
Then attend to the pauses. Varnik chhands live or die at the yati, the breath-break, and the best kavitt writers land a complete grammatical phrase inside each eight-syllable window, so metre and meaning breathe together. Draft loose, count strictly, and revise the phrase boundaries until nothing straddles a pause awkwardly. It is carpentry, and like carpentry it becomes deeply satisfying about an hour in.
What poets can take from this
- Count aksharas, not letters: a conjunct block like ksha is one varna.
- Remember the master rule: varnik counts syllables once each, matrik weighs them as one or two matras.
- Learn one model verse each for kavitt and savaiya and recite them until the pauses feel inevitable.
- When composing, end every eight-syllable group on a complete phrase so the yati never cuts a thought in half.
- Check the final syllable rule of your chosen form; ghanakshari, for instance, wants a heavy close.
- In exams, name the form, give the varna count and pause scheme, then scan a verse: that three-step order earns full marks.
Try it yourself
Write a single ghanakshari-style charan about a monsoon street: three phrase-groups of exactly eight varnas and one of seven, each group a complete image, the last syllable heavy. Then rewrite it with the images in reverse order and decide which sequence releases the thunder last.
Questions
What is the difference between varnik chhand and matrik chhand?
A varnik chhand fixes the number of varnas, syllable blocks, in each line, counting heavy and light syllables equally. A matrik chhand fixes the number of matras, time beats, with a light syllable worth one and a heavy worth two. Ghanakshari is varnik; doha and chaupai are matrik.
Is savaiya a varnik or matrik chhand?
The classic savaiyas, such as mattagayand and durmil, are varnik: they are defined by a fixed count of varnas built from repeated ganas. A few late variants get treated loosely in some manuals, but for exam purposes savaiya belongs to the varnik family.
How are conjunct consonants counted in a varnik chhand?
A conjunct such as pra or ksha counts as a single varna, because it is one spoken syllable block. Its effect on weight falls on the syllable before it, which becomes heavy, but weight does not change the varna count in a varnik chhand.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated September 2026.
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