How Many Metres in Sanskrit Prosody? Chandas Statistics (146 vs. 1348)

[Mārcis Gasūns]

Namaste,

  Here is what I've seen:

https://github.com/shreevatsa/sanskrit/blob/master/data/vrttaratnakara.json 

based "List of metres from Vrtta-ratnakara" (input by Dr. Dhaval Patel) has 146 metres.

https://github.com/shreevatsa/sanskrit/blob/master/data/mishra.json has 1348 metres.

How many in http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_7285627_000/pages/ldpd_7285627_000_00001197.html Apte, Vaman Shivaram, The practical Sanskrit-English dictionary Appendix I have not counted, around 100?

What have I missed?

M.G.

[Kushagra]

Dear Mr. Gasuns Ji,

A few factors can explain the discrepancies:

1. There are around 100-150 known वार्णिक meters in Sanskrit. They are listed in a book called छन्दोमञ्जरी, among other references. Some meters, such as उपजाति, have different varieties.

2. There are several known मात्रिक meters in Sanskrit, such as आर्या. But this category is more fluid.

3. There are several Vedic meters. Some are related to meters in (1). For example, कुसुमविचित्रा is related to गायत्री.

4. There are numerous Prakrit meters that have been adopted in Sanskrit. Some have both वार्णिक and मात्रिक versions.

5. There are various meters in regional languages that have been adopted in Sanskrit.

6. There are meters in foreign languages or other modern meters that have been adopted in Sanskrit. Even I have invented a meter to adopt the Dactylic Hexameter in Sanskrit (षण्मुखमाला चित्रविशाला वीरवधूटी).

Most traditional books count 1 and 2 but their enumeration might vary. This would lead to a number around 200. After including all 6 categories with the sub-varieties of each meter, one may exceed 1000.

Best,

Kushagra

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bvparishat+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bvparishat/6fe10000-799f-418b-be21-41ae07deef7dn%40googlegroups.com.

[Shreevatsa R]

It's a question of combinatorics versus aesthetics.

Answer 1: Even if you count only metres of the vṛtta (varṇa-vṛtta) type, and among them only sama-vṛtta metres (ones where each of the four pāda-s has the same pattern), then there are 2^n metres of pāda length n (as there are two possibilities for each position), so adding this up for n=1, 2, ..., 26 (as any longer is called "daṇḍaka") gives 134217726 metres. That's over 134 million (13 crore). Cut that in half if you think pāda-s should end with guru. :-) As for giving separate names to all of them, one is only limited by one's patience.

Answer 2: The point of putting something in metre is that it should sound pleasant to hear. There are only so many different things that the ear can distinguish, let alone find enjoyable. The higher your standards of aesthetics, the fewer metres you would consider to "really" exist. All the rest are just names given to "weird" patterns: while it is no doubt possible in a language like Sanskrit to compose in any of them, it would be pointless to do so (except as mental exercise or whatever).

This is similar to rāga-s in classical music, where one can combinatorially imagine similarly dizzying numbers of potential rāga-s but only a two-digit number of them are common or truly enjoyable.

--

Anyway, to be more concrete, I don't know where Dr Anand Mishra initially got such a large list of (varṇavṛtta) metres from. Presumably it is from actual works on prosody where the author(s) bothered to give names to thousands of patterns for some reason. A paper by Ashwini Deo (this one) says: 

> Hundreds of meters are instantiated in classical Sanskrit literature and many more are listed (and illustrated) by traditional metrical texts. The most exhaustive listings of these, modern compilations by Velankar (1949) and Patwardhan (1937) contain more than 600 meters.

The references mentioned are to:

* Patwardhan, M. (1937). Chandoracanā. Bombay: Karnataka Publishing House.

* Velankar, H. D. (1949). Jayadāman. A Collection of Ancient Texts on Sanskrit Prosody and a Classified List of Sanskrit Meters with an Alphabetical Index. Bombay: Haritoṣamālā.

It would be good to look at Mishra's list and find out which ones are not listed in those sources, so that we can at least find the mystery sources of the other metres. Work for someone or some future day.

--

[Nagaraj Paturi]

The following was posted on Indology list : 

Dear all,

I wrote a month ago mentioning a tool I've been working on, which I said could be used to analyze the meter of whole texts (the Rāmāyaṇa, for example). Fortunately, I was able to give it more time since then, and I'm pleased to say that it's finally in good shape and ready to be used more widely. 

Access it online here: skrutable.pythonanywhere.com

The web app should hopefully be easy to use, even on mobile devices, and it also gives point-and-click access to whole-file analysis. Meter identification was already able to give good detail on such things as anuṣṭubh vipulās and unmetrical pādas, but now it's also able to handle even more difficult cases like triṣṭubh upajātis. As a nice bonus, I was also able to optimize it for speed in a major way, such that where it was taking 20 minutes to finish the Rāmāyaṇa before, now it can do it in just 10 or so seconds(!)

I'm hoping that this tool will come in handy not only for research but also for helping students learn about and enjoy Sanskrit meter. Please do give it a try and also pass it on. I'm interested to follow up with people on their experiences with it.

Kind wishes,
Tyler

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bvparishat/CAKEM%3DPNuB6hZ-hTcEcjm3LD_v6HUuoPW4gTOdEi%3DB0v1f_uYxw%40mail.gmail.com.

--

Nagaraj Paturi

 

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

Director,  Inter-Gurukula-University Centre , Indic Academy

BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala

BoS Veda Vijnana Gurukula, Bengaluru.

Member, Advisory Council, Veda Vijnana Shodha Samsthanam, Bengaluru

BoS Rashtram School of Public Leadership

Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Studies in Public Leadership

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies, 

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education, 

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

 

 

 

[Prabhu]

I tried the ITRANS->DEV transliteration on  skrutable.pythonanywhere.com  

It  converted 

gaNaka to  गणक 

but 

gaNita to गऋत

Am I missing something?

Regards

Prabhu

[K S Kannan]

The virtual infinitude of expression is invariably hinted at sometimes

with the self-same analogies. We weave an endless tapestry of words

with but a few alphabets, even as with just over a half dozen notes

the entirety of music is spun. Says Māgha :

वर्णेः कतिपयैरेव ग्रथितस्य स्वरैरिव ।

अनन्ता वाङ्मयस्याहो गेयस्येव विचित्रता !॥

The upamāna ought to be superior to the upameya, and the more famous of the two.

So here. Who does not know music? The most elementary lessons in music

hold a mirror to the primacy of the septad of notes.

As against the same, the 43 (tantrically 50 or 51, or even 64 as per Śambhu-mata) alphabets

of the [Sanskrit] language lead to literature which can see no end to its variety. Pitting 7 against

what is just above two scores - shows the aucitya in the choice of the more powerful upamāna.

And in the case of metres, the base is not even fixed or fixable as over 40 or even 7.

(The binary criterion describes and circumscribes but the varṇa-vr̥tta-s).

Practicability and plausibility are the sole criteria for a sensible discernment

and drawing the line for the numerosity of possibilities.

And provided, once again, with the possibilities of sama/ardhasama/viṣama potentialities,

who on earth can say I have counted the last metre, and so can claim to have uttered the last word?!

Extending the variety of expressions to slightly different realms/strata,

poets and poeticians have thus had to invoke the impossibility that can be posited

even at the hands of Vācaspati (as does Ānandavardhana), or even Sarasvatī (as does Daṇḍin)!

And in Tāntric/Āgamic literature, lipi-s or varṇa-s (sometimes shown as arṇa-s)

are said to constitute the exterior (the means of support in meditation),

the mere external frame, of the divinity. Vāc is but the body, and the content, Artha,

the essence. And Chandas constitutes but the āvaraṇa for the frame (chadir āvaraṇe),

the most extraneous accoutrement, to wit.

[What infinitude then must the quintessential - the supreme artha

(identified with Śiva by Kālidāsa and with Viṣṇu in Viṣṇu-purāṇa) just be!

What wonder, then, that kavyānanda has been shown as but a [obviously younger] brother of brahmāsvāda

(as said by Viśvanātha) or, even more effectively spelt out, as its vipruṇ-mātra (as stated by Abhinavagupta) ?]

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bvparishat/CAJGj9eaa-SZm0%3DYnJ4x9ktn2K_YRnpEjPBEsYRqzrPTc2GBEyQ%40mail.gmail.com.

--

Dr. K.S.Kannan  D.Litt.

​Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj Chair Professor, IIT-Madras.

Senior Fellow, ICSSR, New Delhi.

Academic Director, Swadeshi Indology.

Member, Academic Council, Veda Vijnana Shodha Samsthana.

Nominated Member, IIAS, Shimla.

Former Professor, CAHC, Jain University, Bangalore.

Former Director, Karnataka Samskrit University, Bangalore.

Former Head, Dept. of Sanskrit, The National Colleges, Bangalore.

[Mohana Rao]

duHkhabhanjanakavi's vAgvallabha lists more than 1000 metres. Some of these developments are traced in Classical Sanskrit Prosody by yEdukoNDalu (an RSS publication from tirupati.)

J K  Mohana  Rao

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bvparishat/CAN47gm4_bb6tOmAPV32fV0z%2BnqvTCVpzJtqH-4ZiBBh8uw0diA%40mail.gmail.com.