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vehicle of literature, began to make use of some classical ganavṛttas, as the sequel will show.
Metre of the Bhavisattakahā. The metrical unit in our work is the Kadavaka. It consists most usually of from ten to sixteen lines of two feet each. There are however Kadavakas running over twentysix lines like V 9 and even as many as thirty like XII 3. Sometimes there is an odd number of lines in a Kadavaka. The body of the Kadavaka is in a metre which consists of sixteen matras to a foot and is either Pajjhatika or Alillaha and the last two lines are in what is called Ghatta metre. Of the three hundred and fiftyfour Kaḍavakas in our work, almost all with the exception of about seventeen are thus uniformly either in Pajjhaṭika or Alillaha. The remaining seventeen or so are in different metres, some of them classical. Each Sandhi is headed by two lines in of different metre, and each Kaḍavaka of Sandhis XIII and XIV and the first three of Sandhi XV, i. e. thirtysix Kaḍavakas in all; are headed by a Duvai.
(A) APABHRAMSA OR POPULAR MĀTRĀ METRE.
(1) Prajjhaṭika is thus described in Pingala*:
"Have four ganas consisting of four mātrās each in the four feet, with a 'payodhara' (i. e., according to commentator) at the end of each. That is Pajjhaṭika consisting of sixty four matras in four exactly similar feet."
Thus sixtyfour matras equally distributed over four feet (two feet are written in one continuous line in our work) with at the end of each, is the feature of Pajjhaṭikā and it is borne out amply by our text. The principal Pajjhaṭikās are found in I Kad. 1 to 11; IV 4, 5, 6; XII 6 to 11, 13 and 14; the whole of XIII; XIV 1 to 7 and 12 to 20 (i.e. end); XV 2 to 9; XIX 12 to 16 (i. e. end); XX 6 to 10; XXI 1 to 10; XXII 1 to 3.
(2) Alillaha or Adilla: This is strictly speaking a variety of Pajjhaṭikā, having as it does sixteen syllables to a foot and every two feet rhyming with each other. The difference however lies in the treatment of the last three syllables. In Pajjhaṭikā the last but one must be guru or of two mātrās, in Alillaha the last two must be laghu alike. Pingala expressly says that there must not be a 'payodhara' at the end of Alillaha but a 'supiya' i. e. two short syllables according to the commentators. A comparison of the two
from the text will make this clear.
4 Ibid p. 217.
उत्तम करहँ गण ठाइँ ठाइँ ठइ अंत पओहर पाइँ पाइँ । चउसठ्ठिमत्त पज्झलइ इंदु सम चारि पाअ पज्झटिभ छंदु ॥ १२५
5 Ibid 220. सोलह मत्ता पाउ अलिलह बेवि जमका भेउ अलिल्लाह ।
हो ण पओहर किंपि अलिलह अंत सुपिअ भण छंद अलिलद ॥ १२७
