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26
INTRODUCTION
this latter is called Gitikä and the currency of the name Ripùc. chandas for it is ascribed to Saitava and others. From all this it seems clear that for a long while the Gitikā, derived from the Gīti by the substitution of some Pañcamātras, usually of the Madhyalaghu type, for the usual Caturmätras at the 3rd and the 7th places, was a favourite metre of the Prākrit poets, who generally employed it for the concluding stanza of their strophic Sirsakas and Dvipadīs, as a variation of the usual Gāthā. Thus it is used for this purpose in all its strophic metres by the author of the Jānāsrayī, while Virahānka employs it in the case of 3 out of the 11 strophic metres which he defines, Gathā being employed in the case of the others. After the time of Virahānka, however, this Gītikā seems to have lost its popularity and importance until at last by the time of Hemacandra it became wholly merged in the Gīti from which it had originated. Thus the Gitikā at the end of the Dvipadi-khanda in Sriharşa's Ratnāvali (I. 14) which has retained its true nature in the quotation of Hemacandra, is nevertheless turned into a Gīti in the Kavidarpand, where it is quoted at 2. 36. 3, as also in the editions of the drama which are repeatedly taken out.
23. Besides the group of metres derived from the Gātha and the Giti Jānāśrayi mentions the Galitaka, the Nirdhāyikā, the Narkuțaka, and the Adhikākṣarā. Each of these is a Sama Catuşpadi and is treated as a well known metre by Virahānka in his Vșttajātisamuccaya. Only the Galitaka defined by Jānāšrayi is called Lalitā at Vjs. 4.60; but in addition to this Virahānka defines, at Vjs. 4.89-105, 14 different metres called Galitās, probably the same as Galitakas. Of these 8 are Sama Catuspadis of different length having from 13 to 25 Mātrās in a Pāda the shortest being called Pada-Galitā; 2 are Ardhasama Catuspadis one of which is called Mukha-Galitā (7-25) and the other Vişama-Galitā (14-16); and 4 are Sama Dvipadīs, the longest of which contains 46 Mātrās in a Pāda. Most of these are found under the same or different names among the 24 Galitakas defined by Hemacandra at Chandonusāsana 4.25-48. In spite of the names like Pada-Galitā, Mukha-Galitā and Vişama-Galitā, it is difficult to see the signification of the term Galitā, or Galitaka as Hemacandra calls them all. It comprises, however, both the Dvipadi and the Catuşpadi, as well as the Sama and the Ardhasama metres. In short, it seems to have been a general term like Dvipadi and Rāsaka, Vastuka and Catuşpadi, or like the Dhavala
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