A History of Sanskrit Literature c9.s3.22

c9.s3.22

Corroboration of the evidence of Patañjali can be obtained from the *Chandassūtra* of Piṅgala, which ranks as a Vedāṅga but is mainly devoted to the exposition of secular prosody. Piṅgala ranks as an ancient sage, being sometimes identified with Patañjali; the aspect of his work suggests considerable age, and many of the metres which he describes are certainly not derived from the Kāvya literature which has come down to us. They suggest a period of transition in which the authors of the erotic lyric² were trying experiment after experiment in metrical effect. The names of the metres can often most plausibly be explained as epithets of the beloved; the stanzas may have been so styled because the word in question occurred in them. Thus we have the metre Kāntotpīḍā, the plague of her lovers, Kuṭilagati, she of crooked gait, Cañcalākṣikā, she of the glancing eyes, Tanumadhyā, she of the slender waist, Cāruhāsinī, the sweetsmiling one, and Vasantatilakā, the pride of spring. Other names suggest poetic observation of animal life; thus we have Açvalalita, the gait of the horse, Kokilaka, the cry of the cuckoo, Siṅhonnatā, tall as a lion, Çārdūlavikrīḍita, the tiger's play. The plant world gives others as Mañjarī, the cluster, Mālā, the garland. That a strong school of lyric poetry existed about the Christian era and probably much earlier we cannot seriously doubt; to its influence we may with reason ascribe the appearance and bloom of the Māhārāṣṭrī lyric about A.D. 200.