Chandas — metre, and the first binary notation
छन्दस्
Also written: chandas · vedic metre · pingala · binary numbers india · fibonacci india
Chandas is the feet of the Veda — the metres in which the mantras stand. Metre is not ornament here: the metre is part of the mantra's identity, and each metre is treated as a living power with its own deity and effect.
| Metre | Syllables | Structure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gāyatrī | 24 | 3 × 8 | The metre of the Gāyatrī mantra; associated with Agni |
| Uṣṇik | 28 | 3 pādas | — |
| Anuṣṭubh | 32 | 4 × 8 | The śloka metre — the Gītā, Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata are in it |
| Bṛhatī | 36 | 4 pādas | — |
| Paṅkti | 40 | 5 × 8 | — |
| Triṣṭubh | 44 | 4 × 11 | The most frequent metre of the Ṛgveda |
| Jagatī | 48 | 4 × 12 | — |
Piṅgala's mathematics
Piṅgala's Chandaḥśāstra (c. 3rd–2nd century BCE) asked a purely combinatorial question: how many patterns of light and heavy syllables fit a metre of n syllables? Answering it, he set out a binary representation of numbers using laghu and guru as the two states, a method for computing 2ⁿ by repeated squaring, the array now called Pascal's triangle (meru-prastāra), and the recurrence now known as the Fibonacci sequence — the mātrā-meru, describing metres of fixed duration.
The sources of knowledge in Sanātana Dharma
The complete library: Nigama and Āgama, śruti and smṛti, the four Vedas with their four layers, the six Vedāṅg…
Śruti — that which was heard
What apauruṣeya means, how the Veda was preserved syllable-perfect for millennia without writing, and why śrut…
Smṛti — that which was remembered
The vast human-authored body: Vedāṅga, Itihāsa, Purāṇa, Dharma Śāstra, Sūtra, Darśana, Āgama and Kāvya — deriv…
Nigama and Āgama — the two revealed streams
The Vedic and the Tantric revelations: their different forms, their different eligibility rules, why every tem…
The four Vedas
Ṛgveda, Yajurveda, Sāmaveda and Atharvaveda — what each contains, the priest each belongs to, its śākhās, and …
Ṛgveda
The oldest surviving text of the tradition: 1,028 hymns in ten maṇḍalas, its structure, its great hymns, and w…
Last revised 2026-08-16. Corrections are welcome — see how this site is written.