354 M. M. Chakravarti — Language and literature of Orissa. [No. 4, 
poems of Lokanatha. and tlie three early poems of Abhimanyu are 
purely fictional. Poems of similar nature are also mentioned in 
Hunter’s list, such as Balabliadra Blianja’s Bhababati, Haricandra 
Deva’s Lilabati, Padma]abha Deva’s Prabhabati. Their contents are 
however yet unknown. 
The framework of the romances is practically so uniform that it 
may be generalised by the following sketch. The story opens with the 
description of a beauteous girl attending on Parvatl or Radha (Laksmi) 
in the heaven. Some prince (occasionally a Rsi) sees her and falls in 
love with her who returns his love. For this Parvatl or Radha- curses 
her to take birth as woman; but on her entreaties changes the curse 
to human life with the lover as husband. The girl is born as a princess, 
and the lover as a prince. Their childhorfd and youth are then describ¬ 
ed. The one hears of the other, and falls in love. After some 
manoeuvring they meet and fall more deeply in love. This gradually 
lends to marriage (occasionally Gandharva marriage). A few months 
are spent in happiness, and then the lovers are separated by a deus 
ex machina. Each is obliged to live one year apart from the other. 
Several cantos then describe the griefs of the lovers and their passionate 
outbursts as one season passes and the other arrives. By grace of the 
goddess they are re-united and henceforth live a. happy life. They 
become king and queen, and after death are taken back into the 
heavens. 
The next head is versification which includes the prosody, the 
selection of words and their signification—in short the outer frame of 
poetry as distinguished from the inner spirit. An Oriya poem is 
divided into parts which are named Chanda (canto) ; and the Chanda is 
divided into padas (stanzas) that are made up of two to six lines. 
All the lines rhyme; blank verses are unknown. The padas can 
often be scanned according to rules of Sanskrit prosody, but sometimes 
they are not. This arises from the fact that all Oriya poetry, if not 
translations of Sanskrit religious works, are intended to be sung, and 
not simply to be read. Hence many padas cannot be scanned, if simply 
read; while in singing there arises no difficulty, as the vowels may be 
shortened or lengthened according to the convenience of the singer. 
For this reason too, the Chandas are much shorter than the cantos of 
Sanskrit classics, not generally containing more than a hundred padas. 
Each Chanda is also set to a tune. These tunes are largely Sanskritic, 
but have also a fair number of local airs, as I have already pointed out 
under the head of songs. 
As regards the selection and signification of words the Oriya poets 
follow the rules of Sanskrit rhetoric as closely as the language permits. 
