Sam and all,

I think AI does a good job at giving the overall answer for single verses in common meters without imperfections, but it's not reliable for finer detail in the event of imperfections, or for large numbers of verses, or for rarer meters like the one given. Both deterministic systems and AI can be useful, depending on what one needs. As we see here, though, rare meters can require more digging in any event. Thanks, Roland.

As for deterministic systems, yes, my own

skrutable.info is the most advanced and actively supported at the moment. Shreevatsa's sanskritmetres.appspot.com is unchanged since 2018 and no longer supported, but I agree it's worth checking. Finally, Hrishikeh's Chandojñānam at

sanskrit.iitk.ac.in/jnanasangraha/chanda is also excellent, but it's been down for a few weeks/months because of university server issues.

If folks have strong opinions that Skrutable should also cover the long tail of rare meters, let me know, I could at least add it as an option.

Kind wishes,

Tyler

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Samuel Grimes <grimessm@gmail.com>
To: steiner@staff.uni-marburg.de
Cc: Patrick Olivelle <jpo@austin.utexas.edu>, INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>
Bcc:
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2026 20:41:28 -0400
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Sanskrit meter
Claude can identify meters with ease, for better or worse.

On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 2:10 PM Roland Steiner via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear Patrick,
The metre (samacatuṣpadī) is called Śarabhā (definiton: Nāṭyaśāstra ⁅ed. Baroda] 15.91) and has the structure ma bha na ta ga ga .
Kind regards,

Roland

Am Samstag, 18. Juli 2026 19:33 CEST, schrieb Patrick Olivelle via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>:

Thank you all for sending me the links. They proved very useful.

There is, however, one verse in Aśvaghoṣa’s Saundarananda, 12.43, which is not recognized by any of the apps you mentioned. I give it below. If any of you can identify the meter, I’d be mighty grateful.

Patrick

यावत्तत्त्वं न भवति हि दृष्टं श्रुतं वा
तावच्छ्रद्धा न भवति बलस्था स्थिरा वा ।
दृष्टे तत्त्वे नियमपरिभूतेन्द्रियस्य
श्रद्धावृक्षो भवति सफलश्चाश्रयश्च ॥

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