[Y-Indology] Popular versus Classical meters (corrected)

[Guest guest]

I have to apologize for the following typo:

The symbol "° °" means "v v" resp. "_" (not: "_ _"), i.e., two maatraas.

 

Originally, Vaitaaliiya has been a maatraachandas of the following structure:

The opening of the

uneven quarters (ac) consists of 6 (3 x 2) maatraas, the opening of the even

quarters (bd) consists

of 8 (4 x 2) maatraas, followed in each quarter by the cadence _ v _ v _ ( v =

short, _ = long).

Moreover, 6 short syllables in the beginning of the uneven quarters (ac) is not

allowed.

Accordingly, the scheme of a Vaitaaliiya is as follows ( ° ° = v v resp. _

):

 

ac: ° ° ° ° ° ° / _ v _ v _

 

bd: ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° / _ v _ v _

 

The Vaitaaliiya in the "classical period" (Kaalidaasa, Bhaaravi, Maagha, etc.)

has already a fixed

form, thereby loosing its original character of a maatraachandas:

 

ac: v v _ v v / _ v _ v _

bd: v v _ _ v v / _ v _ v _

 

Consequently, later Indian authors of metrical treatises subsume that "frozen

Vaitaaliiya form"

under the ardhasamav.rtta class and use special names for it (e.g. Hemacandra:

Prabodhitaa;

Jayakiirti: Vibodhitaa; a more popular name is Viyoginii, used in the late work

Mandaaramarandacampuu).

 

On the origin of that metre, see Hermann Jacobi: "Über die Entwicklung der

indischen Metrik in

nachvedischer Zeit", Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 38

(1884), pp. 590-595

(= Kleine Schriften I, Wiesbaden 1970, pp. 146-150); Junko Goto-Sakamoto: Les

stances en

maatraachandas dans le Jaataka Paali. [unpublished] Thèse pour le doctorat de

3ème cycle présentée

à

l'Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III). 1982.

 

With regards,

Roland Steiner

 

On 25 May 2004 at 9:17, Phillip Ernest wrote:

 

[...]

> It seems that maatraa can also be synonymous with paadam? Mallinatha writes

> after the first stanza of the sixteenth canto of the Sisupalavadha, asminsarge

> vaitaaliiyaakhyaM maatraavRttam, but all of the hemistichs in this canto have

> the same number of syllables which are long and short in the same places, so

> the metre seems to be quantitative rather than moric, yet it is called a

> maatraavRttam.

>

> Phillip

 

------- End of forwarded message -------