3Q6 on SANSCRIT AND 



the various kind of metre to be admissible in the pro- 

 vincial lanouages, and has quoted examples in those of 

 Mdhdra.shi'rii\ Gurjara and Cdnyacubja. The last 

 mentioned, which is the same with the old Hindi, as is 

 demonstrated by ihis specinien of it, mi^ht furnish very 

 numerous instances; especially the Hindi poetry of 

 Ce'sava da'sa,* who has studiously employed a great 

 variety of metre, Soirie examples will accordingly be 

 quoted from the most distinguished HimJi poets. The 

 sacred books of the Sikhs, composed ir a Penjdbi dia- 

 lect, which is undoubtedly derived from the ancient 

 Sdres'wata,^ abound in specimens of such metre. The 

 language of Miniild, and its kindred tongue, which 

 prevails in Boigal, also supply proof of the aptitude of 

 Sanscrit prosody ; and the same is probably true of the 

 other four national languages, \ 



Pingala's rules of Sanserif prosody are expressed 

 with singular brevity. The artifice, by which this has 

 been effected, is the use of single letters to denote the 

 feet of the syllables. Thus L. the initial of a word 

 signifying short (laolm), indicates a short syllable. G. 

 for a similar reason,^ intends a long one. The combi- 

 nations ©f these two letters denote the several dissylla- 

 bles : Ig signifying an iambic ; gl a trochaeus or cho- 

 reus ; gg a spondee ; 11 a pyrrichius. The letters, 

 M.y.R.S.T.J.Bh. and N, mark all the trisyllabical feet, 

 from three long syllables to as many short. A San- 



• Contemporary with Jkuancir and Shah Jehan. 



i The remaiiiinj^ Sarcsiuala BraLmana^ inhabit chif fly the Punjab. 



J Those oi Dravida, Carnutaca, Tflinga, &nd Odra or UJij/a. I 

 omit Gaura. The Bra/imanaiy bearing this national desigiiation, are 

 fettled in the districts around Delhi: but, unless theirs be the lan- 

 guage of MaChura, it is not ealy to assign to ihem a particular Ra- 

 tional tongue. 



§ Being the initial of guru, long. 



