REKHTA TAQTI PROJECT (BETA)
Check Behr of your Ghazal or Sher
Rekhta’s Taqti Project
Rekhta's Taqti application allows you to do taqti (scansion) of your sher or ghazal. Taqti means scanning the verses of poetry to identify the rhythmic patterns. Using proprietary algorithm developed by Rekhta Labs, this Rekhta Taqti enables shayars to verify the rule compliance of Behr, identify mistakes and rectify them.
User can type sher or ghazal of their choice. Each word of the shayari is divided into syllables by the Rekhta Taqti, which then determines the weight, or vazn, of each syllable. Following that, the Rekhta Taqti analyses the rhythm using the vazn pattern of each syllable.
Example for the same is given below...
What makes it unique?
Rekhta Taqti allows users to type sher or ghazal in Devanagari and Urdu Scripts. It verifies the result using the largest repository of 70,000 ghazals from rekhta.org. Rekhta Dictionary also plays a vital role in the Rekhta Taqti algorithm.
Understanding Behr
The rhythm pattern of a sher or ghazal is known as the Behr, which is also known as meter. A sher or ghazal that has same rhythm in all its lines (misra) is said to be in Behr.
Words of a sher can be broken down into syllables
The weights (vazn) are then assigned to syllable based on how long or short is the sound of the syllable. 2 is assigned for the long sound and 1 for the short sound
Vazn of a long syllable can be dropped under some rules, and hence a long syllable can be pronounced as a short syllable under special circumstances.
Naghma comprises of two long syllables, Nagh maa (22).
However, it can be pursued as Nagh ma (21). Behr is essentially a particular pattern that combines the arkaans (singular = rukn) (dummy words) of Urdu prosody that specify the "length" of a sher.
Let’s decode a sher of Faiz Ahmed Faiz using our understanding of Behr
aur bhi dukh hai.n zamaane me.n mohabbat ke siva
Types of Behr
There are multiple Behr used in Urdu poetry. Rekhta Taqti primarily uses 300 sub-categories of Behr for scanning lines of your input shayari. Classification of Behr is based on how long the sher of the ghazal is and is typically divided into three categories- short, medium, and long. Behr-e-Rajaz, Behr-e-Ramal, Behr-e-Baseet, Behr-e-Taweel, Behr-e-Kaamil etc. are some of the core Behrs.
Taqti in Urdu Shayari
The process of cutting down a sher into misra, a misra into alfaaz, lafz into syllable, assigning vazn to syllable is called Taqti. Taqti is the Urdu word for scanning verse of the poetry. Behr is the most significant element of any sher or ghazal. It refers to their predetermined rhythmic structure. A be-Behr or unmetered ghazal cannot be sung in a particular way and this is why Taqti is done to check the behr in Urdu shayari.
Read our blog on "Behr Kyun?"
Behr Kyu?
In order to best appreciate and write poetry one needs to have a sense of rhythm and pattern, as the eighteenth-century poet Samuel Tylor Coleridge rightly observed - “Po...Continue Reading
- By Rekhta |
- Mar 27, 2023 5 mins
How does Rekhta Taqti work?
Type of use cases for Rekhta Taqti
One sher:
Given that there is only one sher, i.e. misra-e-uula and misra-e-sani, it becomes difficult to identify the Behr of the sher. It is possible that both the misra”s” are in two different Behr. In order for the sher (couplet) to be in Behr, both the misra”s” should be in the same Behr.
Two Sher & beyond: