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A History of Sanskrit Literature c28.s3: 3. Treatises on Metre

A History of Sanskrit Literature c28.s3

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3. Treatises on Metre

c28.s3.1

The Brāhmaṇas already show interest in matters metrical,⁶ and sections of the *Çāṅkhāyana Çrautasūtra*, the *Nidāna Sūtra*, the *Ṛk-Prātiçākhya*, and Kātyāyana's *Anukramaṇīs* to the *Ṛgveda* and the *Yajurveda* deal with metre. The topic ranks as the Vedāṅga Chandas, and a Sūtra of this name is ascribed to Piṅgala,¹ the importance of which for the classical literature has already been mentioned, for the work is far more concerned with classical than Vedic texts. The text ascribed to Piṅgala² on Prākrit³ metres is much later. Piṅgala adopts the system of algebraic symbols, using *l* for a short (*laghu*), *g* for a long (*guru*) syllable, *m* for a molossus, and so on. He is clearly earlier than chapters xiv and xv of the *Nāṭyaçāstra* which deal with metre, and the section of the *Agni Purāṇa*⁴ on this topic is derived from Piṅgala. Yet it must be said that neither he nor either of these texts describes fully or accurately the Çloka metre as we know it from the texts. We must, therefore, be uncertain whether his work was the guide by which the poets steered their course. What is clear is that we have no certainly early text other than his. The *Çrutabodha*⁵ is attributed to Kālidāsa, but there is no ground for the ascription. It illustrates, while describing, the verses. Vararuci is also sometimes credited with this text. More definite is the fact that a chapter (civ) in the *Bṛhatsaṁhitā* of Varāhamihira describes metres simultaneously with planetary movements, and that Bhaṭṭotpala in his comment cites a textbook by an Ācārya. The view⁶ that Daṇḍin wrote on metre is uncertain, though Bhāmaha may have done so, and from Kṣemendra we have the *Suvṛttatilaka*.⁷ In book i he describes, with verses from his own works as illustrations, the metres; in ii he deals with defects in metre with many useful citations; and in iii he discusses the use of metre according to the nature of the work, poetry, science, or a combination in which one or the other predominates. He ends by demanding variety of metres from poets, but admits that great writers have often preferred some special metre, as did Pāṇini the Upajāti, Kālidāsa the Mandākrāntā, Bhāravi the Vaṅçasthā, Bhavabhūti the Çikhariṇī, &c.

c28.s3.2

⁶ Cf. Weber, IS. viii; SIFI. viii; H. Jacobi, ZDMG. xxxviii. 590 ff.; xl. 336 ff.

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¹ Ed. with Halāyudha's comm. (*c.* 950), KM. 81, 1908.

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² Ed. KM. 41, 1894. It is dated not before the fourteenth century by Jacobi, *Bhavisattakaha*, p. 5.

c28.s3.5

³ Cf. Ratnaçekhara's *Chandaḥkoça*; Schubring, ZDMG. lxxv. 97 ff.

c28.s3.6

⁴ cc. 328–34. For Bharata see Regnaud, AMG. ii.

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⁵ Ed. Haeberlin, 9–14.

c28.s3.8

⁶ Jacobi, IS. xvii. 442 ff.

c28.s3.9

⁷ Ed. KM. ii. 29 ff.

c28.s3.10

Hemacandra as usual has written a compilation, the *Chando*- *nuçāsana*,¹ while Kedāra Bhaṭṭa's *Vṛttaratnākara*,² which describes 136 metres and was written before the fifteenth century, has been widely used, and the *Chandomañjarī*³ of Gaṅgādāsa is also well known.⁴

c28.s3.11

¹ Bühler, *Hemachandra*, pp. 33, 82.

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² Ed. Bombay, 1908. Mallinātha (cf. p. 435) uses it.

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³ BSGW. vi (1854), 209.

c28.s3.14

⁴ Nārāyaṇa wrote in 1545 the *Vṛttaratnākara*; Dāmodara a *Vāṇībhūṣaṇa* (IOC. i. 305).

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