404 O.V SANSCRIT AND 



28. Para-critametat twenah [tuenab] 

 Sauianimi, tan na smrito Vi inetattwena. 

 Dosha- sametat we na 

 piadiishaye na'tra sambhiame tat twena! [twa, ina!]'* 



[See Plate A. Fig. 3.] 



*^TnKN the princess wandered in the forest, an abode of 

 serpents, crowded with trees which resound with the sweet 

 buzz of bees, the resort of flocks of birds. With her dark hair 

 dishevelled through her haste, Bhaimi thus lamented:' 

 *' lCin<^ ! thou slayest foes, but defeiidest thy kindred, with 

 thy quiver and thy sword. Unrivalled in excellence and con- 

 versant with morality, how hast thou practised the desertion 

 of a wife proud but left helpless in a forest ; thus rendering 

 thyself the limit of praise ? but I consider this evil to be the 

 act of another ; and do not charge thee with it: 1 do not 

 blame thee, my husband, as in fault for this terror.* s. 

 26—29. 



In the passage here cited, some variations in the 

 reading, and greater differences in the interpretation, 

 occur : with which it is, however, unnecessary to de- 

 tain the reader. After consulting several scholia, the 

 interpretation, which appeared preferable, has been 

 selected. The same mode will be followed in subse- 

 quent quotations from other poems. 



ir. MdtracK handas or metre regulated by quantity. 



1. Vaita'li'ya. 



Another sort of metre, regulated by the propor- 

 tion of viatras or syllabick instants, is measured by the 

 time of the syllables exclusively ; without noticing, as 

 in the Giinacli handas, the niiriiber of feet. It is there- 

 fore, denominated MdlracJi handas, and the chief me- 

 tre of this kind is named P'^aitdllya. It is a tetrasticii or 

 stropiie of four verses, the first and third containing the 

 time of fourteen short syllables ; and the second and 



