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for instance, as an ordinary artisan would hum with pleasure while working. That is also why most of the quotations from Apabhramśa in Hemacandra and other Prākrit authors, look more like popular proverbs and snatches from popular love-poetry. There was, however, one way of breaking from the rigid, rule-bound classical Sanskrit and Prākrit form, which is essentially bound up with what are colled ganavrttas; and that was by reverting to the old (1) akşaravrtta, and (2) the mātrāvrtta and by avoiding (3) ganavrtta as far as possible.
An (1) akşaravștta is metre defined by the number of letters in a line; such for instance, are the Vedic Gāyatrī, Anustubh, Triştubh, Jagati etc. The more essential factor here is the number of syilables and not the quantity, although even in Vedic metre the tendency is observable of determining in a particular manner the quantity of the last four syllables or so of every foot. But here the division of a foot into a number of ganas or syllabic instants consisting of three syllables of stated quantity, is entirely absent. It was a later invention, perhaps of the sanskrit epic period, logically developed and completely carried out during the Sanskrit classical period. With this also synchronised the Prakrit classical period commencing with the Gāthasaptaśati of Hāla, perhaps even earlier, and still continuing after its last bloom under Siddharāja and Kumārapala of Aşahillavādapattaña.
The (2) mātrāvrtta depends entirely on the number of the mātrās in a foot. Matrā is measured by the time or effort required in pronouncing a syllable, the short syllable forming the unit. Thus all long syllables, those having an anus wāra or visarga, those preceding conjuncts, and those at the end of a foot optionally, have two mātrās.: An Aryā, for instance, has twelve mātrās in the first foot etc. The number of syllables may vary. Thus यस्याः पादे प्रथमे and यदि रामा यदि च रमा are correct instances of a first foot of Arya, although the first contains seven syllables only, and the second nine. Nor is the quantity of the last three or four syllables determined, although the examples given, accidentally seem to agree in that respect also. The metre of our work is mainly characterised by the number of mātrās in each foot.
A (3) ganavrtta is a rigid succession, following with mathematical precision, of a stated number of syllabic instants. The basis of the gañavrtta is of course again the mātrā; for, a Sanskrit gana consists of three syllables of varying quantities long and short; and the resulting number of gañas by permutation and combination, of two different quantities taken three at a - time, is naturally very large. The Apabhramsa also, when it became a
? See section VII below. 3 Pingala Ed. Ghosh p. 4.
दीहो संजुत्तपरो बिंदुजुओ पाडिओ अ चरणंते । स गुरू बंक दुमत्तो अण्णो लहु होइ सुद्ध एकलओ ॥ २
