Forum Pakistan

This is the most popular metre in medieval poetry in the languages of Apabhramsha, Rajasthani, Gujarati, Braj, Awadhi, Bhojpuri and others. Doha belongs to the Hindu metric system (matra meaning measures). Doha is a rhymed distich. The lines have the same rhythmic organization and each is divided by caesura into two parts (charana) with thirteen and eleven matras, further subdivided into groups. Naturally, in the work of different poets there are deviations from the norm. They are particularly typical of the work of Kabir and other Sant poets, and of the * Sufis.

Doha is an independent small poem mostly belonging to the didactic, aphoristic and similar genres and is an important component of a number of complex poetic strophes. Kabir's poems consist of several lines in the chaupai metre and conclude in a doha. In Rajasthani poetry, doha also means ballad, legend, eg, Dhola Maru ra Duha (Ballad of the Love of Dhola and Marwani). The earliest version of the ballad (twelfth century) is written in the doha metre, while the later ones are a combination of chaupai and doha, and also chaupai, doha and prose. Doha was a very popular genre with Amir Khusrau Dehlawi who used it to compose verses in a strange melange of Persian and *Urdu. Dohas of Khusrau are sung by leading Pakistani singers and form part of the faith culture today. The genre of doha remains popular among contemporary and past Pakistani poets. The main Pakistani practitioners are Jamiluddin Aali, Jamil Azimabad and Ilyas Ishaqi.