A verse in āryā metre is in four metrical lines called pādas.
A short syllable counts for one mātrā, and a long syllable (that is, one containing a long vowel, or a short vowel followed by two consonants) counts for two mātrās.
The earlier form of the āryā metre is called old gīti, which occurs in a some very early Prakrit and Pāli texts.
[2] The basic āryā verse has 12, 18, 12 and 15 mātrās in the first, second, third, and fourth pādas respectively.
An example is the following from Kālidāsa's play Abhijñānaśākuntalam (c. 400 CE): Another example is from Nīlakaṇṭha Dīkṣita's Vairāgya-śataka (17th century CE): The metrical treatise Vṛttaratnākara lays down several other conditions: The gīti metre has 12, 18, 12 and 18 mātrās in its four pādas respectively.