Form

The Doha

Also Known As Also spelled duha in Rajasthani and doho in Sindhi literature.
Short Lyric and Epigrammatic Forms

A rhyming couplet form of North Indian vernacular poetry, self-contained and aphoristic, used across Hindi, Braj, Awadhi, Punjabi and related languages for proverbial wisdom, devotional address and moral instruction, and the primary vehicle of the medieval Bhakti and Sant poets.

Facts
Place of Origin
North India, attested from the Apabhramsha literature of the early medieval period onward. 1
Structure
A self-contained rhyming couplet, each line built on a fixed count of metrical instants (matras) rather than syllables, commonly 13 plus 11. 1
Notable Example
Kabir's dohas, among the most widely quoted couplets in North Indian devotional literature; Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas also uses doha stanzas. 1
Mode
Poetry 2
Origin Year
500 2
Connections

Form Of Genre

Lyric Poetry, Genres
Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
In the Other Atlases

Originated In

India

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poeticstier 1
Sources
1. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Princeton University Press
  • Place of Origin: North India, attested from the Apabhramsha literature of the early medieval period onward.
  • Structure: A self-contained rhyming couplet, each line built on a fixed count of metrical instants (matras) rather than syllables, commonly 13 plus 11.
  • Notable Example: Kabir's dohas, among the most widely quoted couplets in North Indian devotional literature; Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas also uses doha stanzas.
2. Doha (Indian Literature) (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)
  • Background section
    the Doha verse-format was popularly used in Gujarati, Rajasthani (Duha), Maithili, Marathi and Hindi folk and modern literature of North India and in Sindhi (Doho) literature of Pakistan.
  • Lead paragraph
    is a lyrical verse-format
  • Lead paragraph, origin year
    since the beginning of the 6th century AD
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