The Music of Hindostan c15.65

c15.65

*Rhythm*. The metres of the hymns are six (later eight) chief ones, in which the governing factor is the number of syllables, varying from twenty-four to forty-four for the stanza. Quantity of vowel is taken no account of except at the cadence. These need not detain us now, as the rhythm of the chants ignores the poetical metre entirely. In the true *Sāman* there are only three time-units: a short (*hrasva*) note for a quantitatively short syllable, a long (*dīrgha*) for a quantitatively long; syllables made long ‘by position’ count as short. An occasional important syllable still further lengthened or, especially at the end of a phrase (*parvan*), stressed, or both lengthened and stressed, is called augmented (*vṛddhi*) or prolate (*pluta*). This also finds its analogue in Plain-song.