Richa (), also rendered rucha, refers to a

shloka Shloka or śloka ( sa, श्लोक , from the root , Macdonell, Arthur A., ''A Sanskrit Grammar for Students'', Appendix II, p. 232 (Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1927). in a broader sense, according to Monier-Williams's dictionary, is ...

(couplet) or

mantra A mantra (Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ma ...

, usually two to four sentences long, found in the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

religious scriptures, the

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

. It is a term used to refer to each verse of the

Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...

Etymology

The etymological origin of the richa is the Sanskrit word ''ruc'' (ऋच्), which means ''to praise''. Richa, is therefore, one ruc after the other. Other meanings of ''ruc'' are splendour, worship, or a hymn. Richa can also refer to a verbal composition of celestial sounds called shrutis; the

Gayatri Mantra The Gāyatrī Mantra, also known as the Sāvitri Mantra, is a highly revered mantra from the '' Rig Veda'' (Mandala 3.62.10), dedicated to the Vedic deity Savitr. is the name of the Goddess of the Vedic meter in which the verse is composed. It ...

is a rucha as well.

Literature

Rigveda

In the

, the richa refers to individual verses, which are collected into a sukta, translated as a hymn. The suktas are combined into the 10 mandalas, the books of the Rigveda. For example, the famous

Purusha sukta Purusha suktam (Sanskrit पुरुषसूक्तम्) is hymn 10.90 of the Rigveda, dedicated to the Purusha, the "Cosmic Being". It is also found in the Shukla Yajurveda Samhita 31.1-16 and Atharva Veda Samhita 19.6. Slightly differe ...

has 16 richas. It is the 90th sukta of the 10th mandala of the Rigveda. The Rigveda contains about 10,600 richas, organised into 191 suktas. The other three Vedas use a similar terminology. One of the richas is composed in praise of the

dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...

: Another richa is composed in praise of the

night Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends o ...

: {{Blockquote, text=The darkness she produces; soon advancing
She calls her sister morning to return,
And then each darksome shadow melts away.
Kind goddess, be propitious to thy servants
who at thy coming straightaway seek repose,
Like birds who nightly nestle in the trees, title=Rigveda

References

Hindu mantras Mantras