Paumchariu Part 1

SR No.: 002523
Original Sutra Author: Swayambhudev
Author: H C Bhayani
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1953
Total Pages: 458
Language: Sanskrit, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 11 MB

Page 135

94
PAUMACARIU
aihim puņu Ghatta samāmañanti, Jamaāvasāņa(e) Chaddani
bḥamanti sarkhả-nivaddha-kadavehim Sardhi, iha vivaha-paārahi tuhum
vi vandhi/SC. VIII 30-31.
"Those that compose in the Paddhadikā, bring forth a Pada (i.e. Päda) of sixteen moras. They construct a Yamaka with two Padas (i.e. Pädas) and a Kadavaka with eight Yamakas. For the beginning they lay down Ghattā and say Chaddani at the end of the Yamakas. A Sandhi is (composed) with a limited number of Kadavakas. So you compose it in a variety of modes'. Here a Kadavaka is said to consist of eight Yamakas, i.e. sixteen Pādas, equivalent to four four-lined stanzas.
The Kavidarpana' says the same thing in words that would remind us of Hemacandra's definition. It observes:
Pajjhadiyāi-caukkam Kadavam, tānam Gano Sandhi. Com. Pajjhaţikādi-chandāmsi catvāri Kadavamo. Adi sabdad Vadanādi-parigrahah. Teşāṁ Kadavakānāṁ gaṇaḥ Sardhi-samjñaḥ.
Here Pajjhadiai-caukkaṁ is predicted of Kadavam and this leaves no doubt as to the meaning. Here as also in Hemacandra's definition chandas means 'a stanza', 'a unit of four lines' and not 'a metre'. In the first chapter of Ch, while dealing with terminology, Hemacandra has used this term in this technical sense.
turyāṁśaḥ pādo 'višese/ Com. Chandasaś caturtho bhāgah pāda-samjñaḥ, aviseșe sămânyabhidhāne.
Chandas here clearly means 'a stanza' of four lines.
And this definition of the Kadavaka is born out by the practice of early Ap. epic poets like Svayambhū in whose works the normal length of a Kadavaka does not exceed eight couplets. But after Svayambhū this convention has become slack and in the compositions of Puşpadanta and other poets, the Kadavaka tends to become longer than 16 lines
Thus Hemacandra does not say anything as to how many metres are permitted to be used in the body of the Kadavaka.
There are three metres which principally appear in the Kadavakas of PC. I-XX, viz., Paddhadikā, Vadanaka and Paranaka. The first two are 16-moraic, the last one 15-moraic.
(22). Paddhad ikā.
The Tippana on the word Sayambhū in Mahapurāna 1 9 5 describes him as Pamthaời (corrupt for Paddhadis Paddhadia)-baddha-Rāmāyaṇa-kartā, Apalisamghīyaḥ. Thus Svayambhu's Rāmayana or Paümacariu was known as a poem composed in the Paddh
(1) Velankar, 1935-1936, 49, 51. (2) The Chandahkandali quoted by the Com. of the Kavidarpana (p. 39) has the
following: Paddhadiyaihim cauhim puna kadava” (3) The difference in the definitions of the Kadavaka as given by Svayambhu on
one hand and Hemacandra and others on the other is significant. The former takes a rhyming distich as a unit and hence gives eight distichs as the measure oi the Kaçavaka, while the latter take a stanza of four lines as the unit and accordingly lay down four stanzas as the standard length of the Kadavaka. But the rhyme scheine in the Kadavaka bears out Svayambhu's view. Only in some late Ap. works, wherein all restrictions as to the length of the Kadavaka appear to have been given up, it is divided in our lined stanzas. But even then the rhyming being confined to two successive lines, no organic connection obtains between the pairs constituting a stanza. Only when fresh material comes to light the difference can be explained.