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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Form of poem with eight stanzas}}<br />
{{Hindu scriptures}}<br />
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The term '''ashtakam''' ({{langx|sa|अष्टकम् aṣṭakam}}), also often written '''astakam''', is derived from the Sanskrit word ''aṣṭā'', meaning "eight". In context of [[poetic]] compositions, 'ashtakam' refers to a particular form of poetry, written in eight stanzas.<br />
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==Form==<br />
The stanzas in an "ashtakam" are a [[rhyming]] [[quartet]] with four lines, i.e. end lines rhyme as a-a-a-a. Thus, in an ashtakam generally thirty-two lines are maintained. All these stanzas follow a strict rhyme scheme. The proper [[rhyme scheme]] for an astakam is: a-a-a-a/b-b-b-b….. (/ represents a new stanza). The rhyme designs are both ear-rhymes and eye-rhymes. Ear-rhyme where the end letters rhyme in sound and audibility, and eye-rhyme where the end letters appear similar. This rhyme sequence sets the usual structure of the astakam. astakam rhyme consists of identical ("hard-rhyme") or similar ("soft-rhyme") sounds placed at predictable locations, normally the ends of lines for external rhyme or within lines for internal rhyme. <br />
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Sanskrit language exhibits high richness in sustaining rhyming structures. Thus Sanskrit ashtakams are capable of carrying a limited set of rhymes all over a lengthy composition.<br />
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Several times in an ashtakam, the quatrains (sets of four lines) conclude abruptly or in other cases, with a couplet (a pair of lines). In the body quatrains the poet establishes a theme and then may resolve it in the final lines, called the couplet, or may leave them unsolved. Sometime the end couplet may contain self-identification of the poet. The structure is also bound by rules of meter for enhanced suitability for recital and classical singing.<br />
However, there are several ashtakams that do not conform to the regular structure.<br />
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==History==<br />
The conventions associated with the ashtakam have evolved over its literary history of more than 2500 years. One of the best known ashtakam writers was [[Adi Sankaracharya]], who created an ashtakam cycle with a group of ashtakams, arranged to address a particular deity, and designed to be read both as a collection of fully realized individual poems and as a single poetic work comprising all the individual ashtakams. He wrote more than thirty astakams in ''stuti'' [dedication] to various deities.<br />
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Ashtakams were a very popular and generally accepted genre of devotional and general poetry during the golden period of [[Sanskrit literature]], and also that of [[Vedic literature|Vedic Indian Literature]].<br />
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==References==<br />
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080726165216/http://www.haryana-online.com/Culture/sanskrit_literature.htm Overview of Sanskrit Literature]}}<br />
*[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9065553/Sanskrit-literature/ Sanskrit Literature]<br />
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==External links==<br />
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080630210748/http://www.stutimandal.com/poems3.htm Numerous Astakams]<br />
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110523054713/http://www.esnips.com/_t_/bhavanyastakam/ Celebrated Bhavani Astakam: Listen]<br />
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[[Category:Indian poetry]]<br />
[[Category:Sanskrit literature]]<br />
[[Category:Hindu literature]]</div>Freaklabsindia