matra
मात्रा matraA prosodic unit of time, the duration of one short syllable; the basic measure of length in metre, counted over the akshara rather than the varna.
Where this term appears
- Keeping the Sound Treatise
The third is matra , the duration of a sound, measured in beats so that a long vowel and a short one are never confused.
- The Branching Hand Treatise
These vowel-marks are called matras , small strokes and hooks placed above, below, before, or after the base letter to turn ka into ki , ku , ke , and so on.
- The Katha Upanishad: the boy who questioned Death Treatise
A "Person of the measure of a thumb," angushtha-matra , "stands in the midst of one's self," lord of what was and will be (2.4.12, tr.
- The Mandukya Upanishad: twelve verses, four states, one sound Treatise
adhimatram pada matra matrash cha padah , the quarters are the elements of the sound, and the elements are the quarters: "the letter a , the letter u , the letter m " (Mandukya 8, tr.
- The Prashna Upanishad: six questions, one year of waiting Treatise
Pippalada answers with a grammar of attainment, grading the syllable by its matras , its measures.
- The Rules of the Rite Treatise
"Grammarians celebrate the saving of half a matra ," it runs, "as joyfully as the birth of a son." A matra is the measure of a single short vowel, the smallest unit of spoken time.
- Duhāī: eight books, counted Treatise
…oken defined as a maximal run of characters in the Devanāgarī letter, matra and digit ranges, with daṇḍa, double daṇḍa and avagraha stripped from either end, so that space and punctuation break a token and a fo…