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Classification of Poetry
919
nothing special in the quotation from A.bh. which mentions this art-form, as quoted above. The ND. has the following: "kinnara-viṣayam lāsyam nṛttam śamyā, sṛngāra-rasa-pradhānam lāsyam, śṛngāra-vīra-raudrā”di-pradhānam chalitam. dvipady adayaḥ chandobhedāḥ. Obviously the metres sung in samya etc. are dvipadi etc. according to the ND.
Dr. Raghavan (pp. 560, ibid) explains that 'dvipadi' as the name of a song, refers to the nature of the composition as well as a time measure, a 'laya'. This can be seen from Act. IV, Vikramorvaśīyam. Dvipadi is taken as a song by Ranganatha Dixit and there is also a composition called dvipadika. It is a natural practice to name a dance after the song featuring in it. In the prabandhádhyāya of music works, there are many such instances. Yakṣagāna, an old kannada drama is named after the songs pertaining to it. Dvipädi is also a kind of 'laya' in 'gati' or gait, of the character on the stage. The actors have to move about on the stage in gaits and steps that are in harmony with their mental moods. Swift or slow movements or gaits suggest this or that rasa. This swiftness or slowness of gaits is the 'laya' meant here. This laya is manifold such as dvipadikā, khandadhārā, carcarī, etc. In the Vikramórvaśīya, act IV, the dvipadi-laya is given as the movement for parikramaṇa, i.e. moving round to another part of the stage and for wheeling to see around i.e. 'diśo'valokya'. 'Sitting down' or 'upaviśya', is done in carcari laya - "carcarikaya upaviśya añjalim baddhvā." Kuṭṭanīmata's modern commentator, Shri. T. M. Tripathi, interprets 'dvipadikā' on pp. 340, as “layaviseṣa", though Ranganatha Dixit takes it, and other similar names, as names of songs; i.e. 'gīti-viseṣa'. Actually there is hardly any difference between these two views, for the songs must be in certain 'laya', - i.e. druta, madhya, and vilambita or fast, medium, and slow time-measures. On the song of the Națī, in the prastāvanā of Abhijñānaśākuntala, Raghava Bhatta observes that the verse on summer season, sung by the națī is a dvipadī, and calls this dvipadi a 'laya'. It means that the song is in that 'laya'. Dvipadi is also the name of a song is borne out by Raghava Bhatta's quotation from the text called Adibharata. The observation reads as -
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"vilambitalaya yatra gurave dvipadī tu sā, śṛngāre karune hāsye
yojyä, hy uttama-madhyamaiḥ. avasthántaram āsādya
gātavyā sā'dhamair api."
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