A History of Indian Literature v2.c20.s2.102

v2.c20.s2.102

¹ *Ind. Stud.* 17, 389 ff.; *cf. Schubring*, ZII 2, 178 ff and Worte Mahāvīras, p. 3 ff., who regards this metre (veḍha, veṣṭaka) as a forerunner of the āryā. He too, observes: "The absence of a division into stanzas which is caused by the varying lengths of the Veḍhas, gives a Veḍha text the character of rhythmic prose" It is true that in the Aṇuogadāra (p. 288 f. of the 1924 Bombay edition) veḍha is mentioned after gāhā (gāthā) and siloga (śloka), but it is not certain whether it here means a metre, because, after veḍhasaṃkhā we find nijjuttiśaṃkhā, etc. *Cf. Leumann*, Jītakalpa in SBA 1892, p. 1196. We must bear in mind that, from the Indian point of view, the metre is no criterion of poetry, as prose can just as well be poetry as can verses, so that it really does not make much difference whether we read these passages as verses or rhythmic prose