Setubandha

SR No.: 001384
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 812
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English & Literature
File Size: 14 MB

Page 94

INTRODUCTION
81
Visvanātha (14th cent.) says that a Prakrit Mahākāvya is composed in the Skandhaka metre, and at places in Galitaka metres as well'. He gives the Setubandha as an example of this, which shows that the view that the Galitakas were interpolations was not prevalent in Eastern India.
We may now give an account of the Galitaka metres used in the Setubandha as far as we have been able to identify them. All of them are Catuşpadis. Galitaka
Hemacandra's treatment of the Galitaka group of metres begins with the so-called Galitaka metre (4.25), which corresponds to the Sampiņditā Galitā metre described by Virahanka 4.89. Each pada has twentyone mātrās (5,5,4,4,3). Hemacandra 4.26 says that when the third and sixth mātrās are short the metre is called Upagalitaka. Mudamalla points out in his commentary that Setu 2.27, 31 and 33 are Upagalitakas; but, as a matter of fact, most of the examples of the Galitaka metre in the Setubandha are Upagalitakas. Other examples are Setu 2.24; 6.62; 7.43; 9.18, 40, 42, 46.
Three other examples of the Galitaka metre in our poem require comment. In Setu 7.41 the first pada has twentytwo mātrās : malaa-candaņa-laa-hare sambharamāṇao. The line as read in the South Indian and Bengal recensions of the poem has, however, twentyone mātrās, and presents no metrical difficulty : malaa-candaņa-laa-haresu bharamāṇao. In Setu 9.49 the sequence of the matragaņas is irregular in the third pada ; and in 9.72 the Trimātra at the end of the first pāda is short of one mātrā. 1 प्राकृतैर्निर्मते तस्मिन् सर्गा आश्वाससंज्ञकाः ।
छन्दसा स्कन्धकेनैतत् क्वचिद् गलितकैरपि । Sahityadarpaņa 6.305. Laborç, 1938.