The verses of the Vedas have a variety of different meters. They are divided by number of padas in a verse, and by the number of syllables in a pada. Chandas, the study of Vedic meter, is one of the six Vedanga disciplines.

• jágatī: 4 padas of 12 syllables
• triṣṭubh: 4 padas of 11 syllables
• virāj: 4 padas of 10 syllables
• anuṣṭubh: 4 padas of 8 syllables, this is the typical shloka of later Hindu poetry
• gāyatrī: 3 padas of 8 syllables

References

• B. van Nooten und G. Holland, Rig Veda, a metrically restored text, Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, 1994.