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A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c8.s1.t2: Chhandas, or Metre

A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c8.s1.t2

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Chhandas, or Metre

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The second Vedânga doctrine, *Chhandas* or metre, stands very much in the same position as the Śikshâ. Some names which have been afterwards adopted as the technical designations of metres, occur in some of the Mantras of the Rig-veda, and there are frequent allusions to metres in the Brâhmaṇas. What is said, however, in the Brâhmaṇas with reference to metres, is generally so full of dogmatic and mystical ingredients as to be of scarcely any practical use. In the Âraṇyakas and Upanishads whole chapters are devoted to this subject. Yet it is again in the Sûtras only that a real attempt has been made to arrange these archaic metres systematically. We have some chapters on metres at the end of the Śakala-prâtiśâkhya, written in Śaunaka’s usual style of mixed Ślokas. This treatise is anterior to that of Kâtyâyana which we find in the introduction to his Sarvânukrama, because Kâtyâyana is the pupil of Śaunaka, as we shall see hereafter. For the metres of the Sâma-veda we have the Nidâna-sûtra in ten prapâṭhakas, which, after explaining the nature and different names of all the Vedic metres, gives a kind of index (anukramaṇî) to the metres as they occur in the hymns employed at the Ekâha, Ahîna, and Sattra sacrifices. As to Pingalanâga’s work on Chhandas, which is most frequently quoted under the title of Vedânga, it does not pretend to be of greater antiquity than the Mahâbhâshya, supposing it were admitted that Patanjali, the author of this famous commentary on Pânini, was the same as Pingala.¹ There would be nothing extraordinary in the fact that Pingala treats of Prâkrit as well as Sanskrit metres. For we have the instance of Kâtyâyana-Vararuchi, who wrote the Vârttikas on Pânini and lived before Patanjali, and is said to be the same who wrote a grammar of the Prâkrit dialects. It must be admitted, however, that Pingalanâga’s Metric is one of the last works that could possibly be included in the Sûtra period; though there is no sufficient ground for excluding it from this period altogether, merely because those rules which refer to metres not yet employed in the Veda are ascribed to the same Pingala. Besides, Pingala is quoted as an authority on metres in the Parisishṭas², a class of literature which does not seem to be separated from the Sûtra period by a long interval.

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¹ Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, ii. 63.

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² MS. Bodl. W. 466. सामगानां छंदः। ब्राह्मणात्तंडिनश्चैव पिंगलाच्च महात्मनः। निदानादुक्थशास्त्राच्च छंदसां ज्ञानमुद्धृतं॥

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To the same class of Chhandas works to which Pingala’s treatise belongs, and which are not restricted to certain Sâkhâs, but are intended for the Veda in general, two other works are added by the commentator on the Sâkala-prâtiśâkhya, the one ascribed to Yâska, the other to Saitava.³ Both these works, however, seem to be lost at present.

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³ तथा सर्वैश्छंदस्थित्यादिभिः पिंगलयास्कसैटवप्रभृतिभिर्यत्सामान्येनोक्तं लक्षणं। See Dr. Roth’s preface to the Nirukta,

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The difference between a Chhandas work belonging to one of the Śâkhâs, and those treatises which are occupied with metre in general, may be seen from the following instance.

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According to Pingala’s Sûtras, a metre of seventy-six syllables is called Atidhṛiti, a metre of sixty-eight syllables Atyaṣṭi. Now Rv. i. 127, 6. a verse occurs of sixty-eight syllables which ought therefore to be called an Atyaṣṭi. According to Pingala himself, however, some syllables may be pronounced as two¹, and if we follow his rules on this point, the same verse consists of seventy-six instead of sixty-eight syllables. In order, therefore, to remove the uncertainty attached to the metre of this verse, the Chhandas chapter in the Śâkala-prātiśâkhya (towards the end of the 16th Paṭala) declares that according to the tradition of the Śâkala or Śaiśira-śâkhâ, this verse is to be pronounced as an Atidhṛiti, *i. e.* with seventy-six syllables. The same direction is given in Kâtyâyana’s index to the Śâkala-saṃhitâ.

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¹ Pingala, 3. 1. पाद इयादिपूरणः॥ इयादिः पूरणो यस्य (पादस्य) असावियादिपूरणः। आदिग्रहणे तु उवादयो गृह्यंते। तन्नायमर्थः। यत्र गायत्रादौ छंदसि पादस्याक्षरसंख्या न पूर्यते तत्रेयादिभिः पूरयितव्या। यथा तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यमिति दिव्यं गच्छ सुवः पत इत्येवमादयः॥

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p. 10.; and quære whether in the Śâkala-prātiś. xvii. 25. one might read इति वै यास्कः instead of इति वैयास्कः as the commentator proposes. Saitava is the pupil of Pârâśarya and divided by thirteen teachers from Yâska. Cf. Bṛih. Âraṇy. Kâṇva. ii. 6. 2, 3.; Indische Studien, i. p. 156. n.

Cites (11)