The crowning glory of Sanskrit literature is its poetry. Over the centuries, many poets have added innumerable gems to it. It boasts of such wonderful depth in thought, construction and meaning of the poems that it would leave anybody spellbound. Such a feat was possible only because the poets had a meticulous and rigorous way of defining the way poems had to be written, the material they should contain, and the rules to adhere to. We present to you a glimpse of such rules, that deals with the construction of a poetical verse. This study of poetrical metres is called CndH S::s*:ö (chhandaH shaastram) or prosody. We hope that after going through this, you will be in a better position to appreciate a Sanskrit verse when you hear one.
But, before doing that, we also want you to take a look at Chitra bandham - the pictorial representation of shlokaas.