PRa'cHIT POETRY. ' 411 



2 . M A " T n a'- S A M A C A . 



The metre denominated Mutn/samaca consists of 

 four verses, each of which contains the ci'iantity of six- 

 teen short syllables ; and in which the last syllable must 

 be a long one ; and the ninth syllabick moment must 

 be in f^eneral detached from the eighth and tenth, and 

 be exhibited of course by a short syllable ; if the 

 twelfth be so likewise, the metre is distinguished by 

 another name ; or if the fifth and eighth remain short, 

 the denomination is again changed. The last sort of 

 metre is varied by deviating from the rule respecting 

 the ninth moment; and another variety exhibits the 

 fifth, eighth, and twelfth moments by short syllables*. 

 These five varieties of the metre called Mdlruscvuaca 

 may be variously combined in the same stanza ; and in 

 that case the measure is denominated Podacuhcd : a 

 name, which is applied with greater latitude in Fracrit 

 prosody, to denote a tetrastich wherein each verse con- 

 tains sixteen moments, without any other restriction as 

 to the number and place of the long and short sylla- 

 bles. 



A POEM Inserted in the first volume of Asiatic Re- 

 searches'}- is a specimen of the variety, which this sort 

 of metre admits. In a collection of tales entitled 

 Vtlala ■payichavhisati^ the author S'l v ada'sa has quoted 

 several stanzas of that poem intermixed with others, in 



will beboih noticeu under a subsequent head. Thetliiftl is in an 

 uncommon measure n;imt-(l Chanduca or dhavia , 



* The names of tlie^e lour varieties are 1st, Viniavas'ica^ which 

 exhibits the gth and 12lh moments by shorts syllables, and l.'jtli and 

 lO'th by along one: the rest being optional. 2dly, Ch'itra exhibit- 

 ing the 5tli, 8th, andf)th, by short syllables, the I5th and 10th by 

 a long one, 3dly Upachitra, the 5th, 8th short} gth and JOth long; 

 also 15th and l6'th long. 4thly, Vis'loca; 5th, 8lh, and I'iih short j 

 )5th and l6th longj and the rest indeterminate. 



t P;ige 35. 



