43S ON SANSCRIT AND 



The following passage from some Hhidi poem, is 

 quoted in Na'rayan'a bhat't'a's commentary on the 

 Vritta Retnacara as a specimen of this metre in the 

 Canyacubja dialect. 



[See Plate C. Fig. 6.] 



Candarpa-mpa jaba ten tumha linha, Crishn'a! Locopacca- 



iTia hama hin, baeu-pira, ch'hori. 

 Jail bhei icain viiaha-pira nasaii meri. Yaln bhenii duti 



path'ai, cahi bata, Gopi.* 



'* Crishna, since thou didft assume the form of Cupid, I 

 have neglected worldly affairs, suffering itiuch anxiety. Re- 

 lieve by thy presence the pain of separation which I endure. 

 Such was the message, with which the Gopi dispatched her 

 cmbassadress." 



V. Shea or Vactra. 



The most common Sanscrit metre is the stanza of 

 four verses containing eight syllables each : and deno- 

 minated from the name of the class, Anushtuhh. Se- 

 veral species of it have been described. Two very sim- 

 ple kinds of it occur, consisting of iambic, or trochaic 

 feet exclusively!^. The rest are included in one gene- 

 ral designation:};. But several analogous species are 

 comprehended under the denomination of Vactra, 

 Here the laws of the metre, leaving only the first and 

 eighth syllables indeterminate, require either a bacchiu 



♦ Short vowels, when final, are so faintly sounded, that they are 

 ufuaily omitted in writing the provincial languages ni' Jyuiia in Ro- 

 man cliaracter. But they have been here preserved at the close of 

 words ; being necessary, as in SaJiscrit, for exhibiting the metre. 



tuThe first termed Pramdni, the other Samuni. Considered as a 

 species of uniform metre, the tirst is also named Nagaswarupiui or 

 Matallicd; and the second is denominated Mallicu. I'here is also a 

 regular measure which alternates trochees and iambics, and is deno- 

 minated Munavccdcrida : and another, named ChitrafiaAa, consisting 

 of t wo d ictyls and a spondee. 



t Vilana. 



