[6][7][8] The Mahabharata, for example, features many verse metres in its chapters, but 95% of the stanzas are ślokas of the anuṣṭubh type, and most of the rest are tristubhs.
[9] The anuṣṭubh is found in Vedic texts, but its presence is minor, and triṣṭubh and gāyatrī metres dominate in the Rigveda.
[7] The traditional view is that this form of verse was involuntarily composed by Vālmīki, the author of the Rāmāyaṇa, in grief on seeing a hunter shoot down one of two birds in love.
The scheme below, given by Macdonell, shows his understanding of the form of the śloka in the classical period of Sanskrit literature (4th–11th centuries CE):
[17] Macdonell's chart given above is in fact too restrictive with regard the first four syllables in a vipulā verse.
For example, the first quarter verse of the Rāmayaṇa (critical edition) contains a na-vipulā and scans ⏑ – – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ – (tapaḥsvādhyāyanirataṃ).
Other examples are easy to find among classical poets, e.g., Rāmacarita 1.76 manyur dehāvadhir ayaṃ – – – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ –.
[18][19] A typical śloka is the following, which opens the Bhagavad Gita: From the period of high classical Sanskrit literature comes this benediction, which opens Bāṇabhaṭṭa's biographical poem Harṣacaritam (7th century CE): When a śloka is recited, performers sometimes leave a pause after each pāda, at other times only after the second pāda.