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34
INTRODUCTION
study and observation in addition to Poetic faculty, and so the Rāsābandha Kāvyas of both kinds, i. e., Präkrit and Apabhramsa, had ceased to interest the more ambitious, educated, and gifted poets of the Apabhraṁsa language. It is probably for this reason that Svayambhū takes practically no notice of these in his work on metres. A referenee to the Sandhis and the Kadavakas as also the metres, which are to be employed at the beginning and the end of them, is however, made by Svayambhu in his Svayambhuchandas 8. 15–17, 20. Svayambhü himself had composed two such Kāvyas, namely, Paumacariu and Ritthanemicariu, both in the Apabhramśa language. But probably the earliest author who composed a Sandhibandha Kāvya in Apabhraṁsa was Caturmukha. His Abdhimanthana is mentioned as a Sandhibandha Kāvya by Bhoja in his Śrngāramañjarī4 and Svayambhū acknowledges his debt to him as regards the Paddhadikā metre much beautified with, Chaddanikā, Dvipadi and Dhruvaka.“
29. Gāthālaksana is an earlier work on Prākrit metres, but it mainly treats of the Gāthā and its derivatives, as its name suggests. Vv. 74–92 of this treatise contain the definitions of a few Apabhramba metres like the Dohā and the Paddhaạikā, Madanāvatāra and the strophic Vastuka, also known as Sārdhacchandas; : but these do not appear to belong to the original treatise and besides the treatment is scrappy and unsystematic. The Svayambhūchandas cansists of 13 chapters whose existence is not specifically marked, but has to be inferred from a recurring stanza, which mentions it to be a work, 'whose foundation is formed by the five Amśas, i. e., the five Mātrā Gaņas, and which is clear on account of the Lakşya and the Lakşaņa being both given' (i. e., the definition of the metre and its illustration, both contained in the same line). The work commences with the Mātrā Vịttas belonging to the Gāthā group in the first chapter (SbP. 1), followed by the Galitaka, Khañjaka, Sirsaka and Māgadhajäti groups of metres in the next four chapters (SWP. 2-5). Unfortunately the portion containing these chapters is fragmentary, yet sufficient of these is available to give us a broad idea about their contents. The next three chapters (SWP. 6 and Sb. 1-3) treat of the Varņa Vrttas and at the end of these, Svayambhu says that all the metres defined so far are the essential metres of the Präkrit Language (Sb. 4.1). Hemacandra does not follow this order, because he 42 See Siddhabhärati vol. II (1950), p. 206. 43 See Bhayani, Paumacariu (f. n. 19), Introduction, p. 51.
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