Epigraphia Indica Vol 08

Author(s): E Hultzsch
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 38

No. 5.]
TALAGUNDA INSCRIPTION OF KAKUSTHAVARMAN.
and has not, so far as I know, been described in any treatise on progody. This metre may be described as a species of mátrásamaka, the name of which as yet is unknown. Each verse contains four Pâdas, the general scheme of which is :
PÅdas 1 and 3: vyu-u-u-V (15 Mátras); Pådas 2 and 4: vy- V
- v (15 Måtrås). In Padas 2 and 4 this scheme is uniformly adhered to. But in Pâdas 1 and 3 we find it strictly observed only in 30 cases out of the 48. In 14 others of the odd Padas a long syllable takes the place of the 6th Mâtrå of the general scheme, followed in 41 out of these 14 Padas by two short syllables instead of a long one. And in the four remaining odd Padas a trochee (-u) occurs instead of the 6th Mátra of the above scheme. This gives us, as subsidiary schemes for Padas 1 and 3 :
wu wyvyyy (16 Mátras);
and vyu -u-u-vy (17 Mâtras).' Examples of Pâdas showing these subsidiary schemes are:
V. 2, Pada 3 : yat-pras&das-trầyatê nityam ; V. 4, Pada 1: atha babhůva dvija-kulam prêmea;
V. 5, Pâda 1: vividha-yajñ-avabhsitha-pang-ambu-; and V. 11, P&da 3: Kali-yage=sminn-aho bata kshatrat;
V. 21, Pada 3: Prêhar-&ntâm=ananyasamcharana. I may state here that the same metre occurs in lines 1 and 2 - hitherto regarded as proseof the Tusâm rock inscription (Gupta Inscr. p. 270), which, on palæographical grounds, has been allotted by Dr. Fleet to the end of the fourth, or the beginning of the fifth, century A.D. The verge is:
Jitam-abhikshnam-da Jåmbavati- vadanáravind-ôrjjit-alina
dånayangana-mukh&mbhôja- lakshmi-tushårêpa Vishnuna () The metre is also found in lines 5-8 of the Ajanta Vakataka inscription, published in Archæol. Survey of West. India, Vol. IV. p. 125; and from the only complete verse preserved there it appears that for the second long syllable (M&trás 3 and 4) of the even Padas two short syllables may be substituted. The verse is :
[Ari]narendra-manli-vinyasta- maņi-kirana-liųha-'kramambujab [1]
Pravarasenas-tasya putrô=bhud v ikasannavêndivar-eksbana[h 10 Lastly, I find the same metre on page 4 of the Bower Mansoript, in a passage which by Dr. Hoernle at first was regarded as prose, but has afterwards been printed by him as a single verse (verse 36) the metre of which is stated to be irregular. Really the passage contains the following two verses which are regular in every respect :
Iti sur-éyam pamcha-pañch-Ahad- rasa-varṇna-gandhaiḥ samanvita [1] bhavati tailan nåmatas-ch=edan= undiramatyarthakarmu kam [11] Tailam-dtad-yah suram=api và purashah prayumjita yatnataḥ [1]
pariharamti tam gad-anikány- &jau ksit-ástrânsiv-êtarê [11] From all this it may be inferred that from about the fifth to the seventh century A.D. the metre above described was well known in different parts of India. That it should now
i Dir in V. 4, Pads 1 ; V. 5, Pads 1 ; V. 10, Pads 3; and v. 12, Påda · Viz. in V. 11, Päda 3; V. 17, Pada 3; V. 21, Pada 8; and V. 24, Pàda 8.
• According to Mr. Rice a long syllable occurs in place of the second - Mr. Rice means the third-Mitri in the third Padas of verses 19 and 21; but this remark is due to wrong remlings.
This, not alldhas, was the reading of Dr. Bhagvanlal Indraji, which is shown to be correct by the metre. . The metre shows that this may not be altered to udiryam.
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