The term Chandas (Sanskrit: छन्दः/छन्दस्, romanized: chandaḥ/chandas (singular), Sanskrit: छन्दांसि, romanized: chandāṃsi (plural)) means "pleasing, alluring, lovely, delightful, or charming", and is based on the root chad, which means "esteemed to please, to seem good, feel pleasant, and/or something that nourishes, gratifies, or is celebrated".
Prose and poetry follows the rules of Chandas to design the structural features of 'poetry'.
In Telugu, 'Chandas' is constructed based on the number of akṣara (roughly syllables) in each line (also called pādam) of a poem.
For example, in a word like svapnamu, sva is an akṣaramu (syllable), but not a namu (letter) as it has two nās (sa and va) in it.
These akṣara are divided into laghuvu (light) and guruvu (heavy) based on the time period of pronunciation.
Meters of the same length are distinguished by the pattern of laghuvu ("light") and guruvu ("heavy") syllables in the pādam.
These Ganam(s) are divided into three major categories: Based on categories of Ganam(s), Telugu poetry is classified as Upajāti only has yati (caesura) but no prāsa (rhythm) where as Jāti and Vṛttā contain both yati and prasā.
Kannada prosody is classified into three parts:[2] Prāsa, or the rhyme scheme, refers to the same consonant repeating periodically in each line.
There are two types: While reading poetry, to breathe, readers paused at places in the text.
In Kannada prosody, Gana refers to the group of the syllables, letters, or units.
There are two types of syllables in Sanskrit prasody: A letter is considered as Laghu when it does not have the above features.
The types are: Śara (ಶರ), Kusuma (ಕುಸುಮ), Bhoga (ಭೋಗ), Bhāmini (ಭಾಮಿನಿ), Parivardhini (ಪರಿವರ್ಧಿನಿ), and Vārdhaka (ವಾರ್ಧಕ).