Doha: Know About The Ancient Indian Form Of Poetry That Is Still Relevant

The Hanuman chalisa, a legendary work by Tulsidas, begins and ends with dohas. It is known to have forty-three verses which begin with two Dohas, continues with forty Chaupais and then concludes with a final Doha. Given below is an excerpt from the same.
shrī guru charana saroja raj, nija manu mukuru sudhāri।
baranaun raghubara bimala jasu, jo dayaku phala chāri॥
Dohas, as we can see, come with quaint and interesting rhymes and are loaded with meaning, for those who can understand this. A number of translations are available for us to go deeper into the meaning of these Dohas.

What Is A Doha?

Let us understand firstly what is a Doha. Doha couplets consist of a pair of two successive rhyming lines where syllables are in the same pattern. So Doha is a rhyming couplet composed in Matrika metre which is in the format of a lyrical verse. Extensively used by ancient Indian saints and poets of North Indian in the 6th century, they were one of the earlier forms of Hindu and Urdu literature. Kabir, Rahim, Tulsidas and Nanak have written innumerable Dohas out of which the couplets or Dohas of Nanak are especially termed as "Sakhis."

Doha Of Kabir

Kabir was a saint of the medieval period whose two lined couplets or Dohas (it exactly means "Two lines") composed in an easy style inspired devotion while also teaching life lessons to the devout folk. These Dohas were written initially in a dialect called Apabhramsha. Kabir's Dohas, display his human nature and the ideal of harmony that he wanted to disseminate amongst people in society.

Apabhramsa Dialect:

Apabhramsa dialect has a historical origin. Earlier on, Prakrit and Pali and even Sanskrit were used extensively in interactions amongst people. Gradually regional dialects for these languages which did not conform to the grammatical rules of the original languages took over and came to be frequently used as a spoken language amongst common people. These dialects collectively are known as Apabhramasa, which when translated to English means " corrupt" or "impure". The Doha genre which is popular in Hindi and Urdu poetry, originated from this dialect.

Structure Of Doha

Each line of 2-line couplet or Doha has 24 Matras. Heavy and light syllables are treated differently in Dohas compared to Sanskrit. While there are 13 Matras in first quarter there are 11 Matras in the second quarter. The first and third quarters of Doha have 14 Matras which should follow the pattern of 6-4-3. Mātrika is defined as a metre found in ancient languages like Sanskrit that are based on the Matra unit.
Stories and epics in their entirety have been scripted in the form of Doha couplets. Ramcharit Manas is a Doha which is actually derived from the Sanskrit work Valmiki Ramayan. Dohas are a popular poetic form that are even now practiced amongst Hindi poets. Dohas are either used in proverbs or in lengthy epics.

Structure Of Matras

Matra is often confused with the syllable of the English language. But it is not so because a single long vowel is equal to two beats or Matras as per the rules of the Apabhramsa dialect. The Doha couplet has 4 quarters, with the fourth quarter containing a reflection or a concluding thought. Dohas, despite being rigid in their structure, serve many uses as they facilitate both forms of literature, that is, short pieces or lengthy epics.
Alternatively, each Doha can run up to hundreds of pages which is evident in the case of epics. Dohas are still treated as most important literary pieces that are reminiscent of the time, they were created in. Althought Dohas are extremely well known in India, they havent been tried in English or any other language.

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