The term usually refers to a unit of metrical verse, most commonly in Sanskrit literature a couplet of two sixteen-syllable lines (pāda), each of which can be subdivided into two half-lines of eight syllables. In the Tibetan translations a śloka is usually rendered as a four-line verse. However, the term is also used (especially in catalogs of canonical works) as a unit measuring the length of texts written in prose or in a mixture of prose and verse, in which case it simply measures thirty-two syllables. The titles of the principal Prajñā­pāramitā sūtras, most of which are written in prose, identify them by including mention of their length in ślokas, usually translated in English as “in nnn lines.” The original titles, even in their long form, include only the number itself, and that this refers to the length in ślokas is by convention inferred.

A type of stanza with four lines of eight syllables.

A type of stanza with four lines of eight syllables.