Nayakumarchariu

SR No.: 001870
Original Sutra Author: Pushpadant
Author: Hiralal Jain
Publisher: Balatkaragana Jain Publication Society
Publication Year: 1989
Total Pages: 280
Language: Prakrit, Hindi, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari, Story, & Grammar
File Size: 18 MB

Page 63

NAYAKUMARACARIU
our work runs to forty-six (IX, 17) and the shortest shows eight only (VII, 12). The total number of kaḍavakas in all the sandhis is 150 (one hundred and fifty) containing, in all, 2205 (two thousand two hundred and five) lines, besides the one kaḍavaka of sixteen lines and the following six verses at the end of the work constituting the author's prasasti.
Five lines, in all, are defective in our text (I, 3, 8; IV, 15, 8; V, 9, 8; IX, 25, 4, 6) as their second foot is missing. It is possible that the poet himself left them incomplete by over-sight as in each case the defective line occurs in continuation of many similarly rhyming feet. Another explanation is that the missing feet may have been overlooked by the earliest scribe who copied the archetype, and so they could not find their way in to any of the later MSS. It is also not impossible that they be later interpolations meant to complete or amplify the descriptions which may have seemed insufficient to their author. As already said in the des cription of the MSS., some lines are found in one or two of them only, and ourwork may not be absolutely free from interpolations (see notes on VI, 12, 4) Let us, however, hope that the missing feet may yet be recovered from MSS. that might be discovered in future.
Prakrit metre is divided into two kinds according as the measure depends upon the number of syllables (vana-vrtta) or on the syllabic quantity (matravrtta). Indirectly, our poet has told us more than once that he was writing his poem in matra metre (Bhoyanu bhuttau matta-juttau Sarasu kaindem kavvu va uttau', V, 2, 4; and Kavvam piva mattu-samvariyam,' VI, 9, 5). He has, however not neglected the other kind entirely. But whatever the metre used, rhyme ( pādanta-yamaka) is the essence of all. The metre that predominates in our work consists of two feet of sixteen mātrās each, rhyming with each other and having only the last few syllabic instants well regulated. Variations in these regulations furnish varieties of metre.
The following is a brief statement of the metres and the total number of kaḍavakas in which they are used
Matra vrtta
Alillaha
Pajjhaṭikā
Pādākulaka
Dipaka
Madhubhara Mañjutilakā
N N ∞ ∞ ÷ 8
60
47
28
142
LVIII
--
Varna-vrtta
Samkhaṇāri Pramanikā
3
1
Bhujangaprayāta 1
1
1
1
Samānikā Mottiyadāma
Malati
+8
-150