The Ramayana of Sage Valmiki is arranged in seven kandas and follows Rama from Ayodhya through the years of exile, the search for Sita, and the return. Tradition holds that the anushtubh meter came to Sage Valmiki as grief turned into speech. Later poets carried the account into other tongues — Kamban in Tamil, Krittivasa in Bengali, and Goswami Tulsidas in Awadhi.
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The Ramayana's metre was born from grief. Seeing a hunter shoot a krauncha bird, Sage Valmiki's cry of shoka came out in perfect rhythm — and became the shloka.
Source: Valmiki Ramayana, Balakanda, sarga 2