South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

and has not, so far as I know, been described in any treatise on prosody. This metre may be described as a species of mâtrâsamaka, the name of which as yet is unknown. Each verse contains four Pâdas, the general scheme of which is :─
Pâdas 1 and 3 : (15 Mâtrâs) ;
Pâdas 2 and 4 : (15 Mâtrâs).

In Pâdas 2 and 4 this scheme is uniformly adhered to. But in Pâdas 1 and 3 we find it strictly observed only in 30 cases out of the 48. In 14 others of the odd Pâdas a long syllable taken the place of the 6th Mâtrâ of the general scheme, followed in 4^[1] out of these 14 Pâdas by two short syllables instead of a long one. And in the four remaining odd Pâdas^[2] a trochee (─ ) occurs instead of the 6th Mâtrâ of the above scheme. This gives us, as subsidiary schemes for Pâdas 1 and 3 :─
(16 Mâtrâs) ;
and (17 Mâtrâs).^[3]

Examples of Pâdas showing these subsidiary schemes are :─ V. 2, Pâda 3 : yat-prasâdas=trâyatê nityaṁ ; V. 4, Pâda 1 : atha babhûva dvija-kulaṁ prâṁśu ; V. 5, Pâda 1 : vividha-yajñ-âvabhṛitha-puṇy-âmbu- ; and V. 11, Pâda 3 : Kali-yugê=sminn=ahô bata kshatrât ; V. 21, Pâda 3 : Prêhar-ântâm=ananyasaṁcharaṇa-.

I may state here that the same metre occurs in lines 1 and 2 ─ hitherto regarded as prose ─ of the Tusâm rock inscription (Gupta Inscr. p. 270), which, on palæographical grounds, has been allotted by Dr. Fleet to the end of the fourth, or the beginning of the fifth, century A.D. The verse is :─ Jitam=abhîkshṇam=êva Jâmbavatî- vadanâravind-ôrjjit-âḷinâ | dânavâṅganâ-mukhâmbhôja- lakshmî-tushârêṇa Vishṇunâ | (||)

The metre is also found in lines 5-8 of the Ajaṇṭâ Vâkâṭaka inscription, published in Archæol. Survey of West. India, Vol. IV. p. 125 ; and from the only complete verse preserved there it appears that for the second long syllable (Mâtrâs 3 and 4) of the even Pâdas two short syllables may be substituted. The verse is :─ [Ari]narêndra-mauli-vinyasta- maṇi-kiraṇa-lîḍha-^[4]kramâmbujaḥ [|] Pravarasênas=tasya putrô=bhûd= vikasannavêndîvar-êkshaṇa [ḥ ||]

Lastly, I find the same metre on page 4 of the Bower Manuscript, in a passage which by Dr. Hoernle at first was regarded as prose, but has afterwards been printed by him as a single verse (verse 36) the metre of which is stated to be irregular. Really the passage contains the following two verses which are regular in every respect :─ Iti sur=êyaṁ paṁcha-pañch-âhâd= rasa-varṇṇa-gandhaiḥ samanvitâ [|] bhavati tailaṁ nâmataś=ch=edam= undîram=^[5]atyarthakârmukam [||] Tailam=êtad=yaḥ surâm=api vâ purushaḥ prayuṁjîta yatnataḥ [|] pariharaṁti taṁ gad-ânîkâny= âjau kṛit-âstrân=iv=êtarê [||]

From all this it may be inferred that from about the fifth to the seventh century A.D. the metre above described was well known in different parts of India. That it should now
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^[1] Viz. in V. 4, Pâda 1 ; V. 5, Pâda 1 ; V. 10, Pâda 3 ; and V. 12, Pâda 3.
^[2] Viz. in V. 11, Pâda 3 ; V. 17, Pâda 3 ; V. 21, Pâda 3 ; and V. 24, Pâda 3.
^[3] According to Mr. Rice a long syllable occurs in place of the second─ Mr. Rice means the third─ Mâtrâ in the third Pâdas of verses 19 and 21 ; but this remark is due to wrong readings.
^[4] This, not -âlîḍha-, was the reading of Dr. Bhagvanlal Indraji, which us shows to be correct by the metre. ^[5] The metre shows that this may not be altered to udîrṇam.