The characteristic of this metre is - रसैरुदैश्छिन्ना यमनसभला गः शिखरिणी ॥
It means in this verse in every quarter of a stanza there are य गण, म गण, न गण, स गण and भ गण sets in an order, after that there are short and long letters - thus there are totally seventeen letters and so it is Shikharini metre. Here there is a pause after six letters and then a pause after 11 letters (6 plus 11 so at the seventeenth letters)
Illustration -
शिरः शार्वं स्वर्गात्पशुपतिशिरस्तः क्षितिधरं
महीध्रादुत्तुङ्गादवनिमवनेश्चापि जलधिम् ।
अधो गङ्गा सेयं पदमुपगता स्तोकमथवा
विवेकभ्रष्टानां भवति विनिपातः शतमुखः ॥
In this Stanza here are sventteen letters in every quarter. These seventten letters make one tried i.e. a group of three. Thus five trieds are formed of the seventten letters and the last two letters remain independent in the form of short and long. In the five trieds there are य गण, म गण, न गण, स गण and भ गण.
In this verse there is a pause at the end of every sixth letter and (after that) at the eleventh letter in this stanza.
गु णा य न्ते दो षाः सु ज न व द ने दु र्ज न मु खे
गु णा दो षा य न्ते त दि द म पि नों वि स्म य प द म् ।
Exmple:
महामेघः क्षारं पिबति कुरुते वारि मधुरं
फणी क्षीरं पीत्वा वमति गरलं दुःसहतरम् ॥
(Meaning: A blemish or defect becomes good quality when it is sopken (done) by a gentleman. And the same even good quality or praise becomes a blemish or a defect when it is sad/done/spoken by a sinful/wicked person. This fact surprised us. (In the same way) Torrential rain = cloud drinks water with minerals and makes water sweet. When a cobra drinks milk vomits out poison. This fact is unbearable)
In this stanza here are sventeen letters in every quarter. These seventeen letters make one tried i.e. a group of three. Thus five trieds are formed of the seventeen letters and the last two letters remain independent in the form of short and long. In the five trieds there are (गु णा य) य set, (न्ते दो षाः) म set, (सुजन) all short letters i.e. न set, (व दने) ending long letters i.e. स set, (दुर्जन) भ set and in the end there are मु short and खे long.
So the metre used in this verse is Shikharini.
In this verse there is a pause at the end of every sixth letter and (after that) at the eleventh letter in this stanza.