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Paramatma-prakasa
Ing; and an objective scanning of a line shows almost uniformly that the first part contains 13 matras and the second 11. But when we read the doha, or try to sing it, it appears that we need 14 mätrās, the last mātrā of a part being necessarily lengthened. So it would be more accurate to state that each line of a doha contains 14 and 12 mātrās with a definite pause after the 14th matrā. P.-prakasa, however, shows 31 cases in all where the first part of the line has 13 matras even when the last syllable is long. In the light of Virahanka's definition, noted below, one will have to accept that some syllable is to be lengthened in these lines. That the doha line really contains 14 and 12 matras is clear from the following definition given by Virahanka. 2
तिणि तुरंगा उरओ' वि-प्पाइक्का कण्णु ।
GT631-988à fa ag an T3 o apoos o IV. 27 | Remembering the technical terms of Virahanka that turamga=4 mätrās, nöüra-one guru, palkka-4 mātrās and kannu-two gurus, the definition prescribes 14 and 12 matras for a doha-line. Both the lines have the same structure, and often e and o are short in Apabh.: thus an objective scanning of even this illustrated doha shows 13 and 11 matras. So Virahānka means that a dohā line has really 14 and 12 though in writing it might show 13 and 11 mātrās. There are other later metrical works like Kavidarpana (II. 15), Praksta Paingala (I. 66 etc.), Chandahkota (21) etc., which plainly state that a dohi-line contains 13 and 11 mātrās. Hemacandra, however, takes 14 and 12 mātrās. This means that Virahanka and Hemacandra take into account the acoustic effect of the flow of a doha-line, while others adopt the objective scanning. That dohā is pre-eminently an Apabh. metre is
attested by the facts that Virahānka composes his illustration in Apabh. and that Rudrata composes his illustrations of slesa of Sanskrit and Apabh. in dohä metre. The two lines of dohã exhibit rhyme at their close even in Sanskrit as seen from Rudrata's verses. The etymology of the word doha needs some reflection. Joindu, we have seen, calls it doha, but Vir ahārka writes its name Duvahaa. If dohā (in Hindi, Rajasthāni, Duha) has a Sanskritic origin, it might be derived from the word dvidha indicating thereby 1) that a line of dohā is definitely divided into two parts, or 11) that in doha metre the same line occurs twice. Virahānka appears to favour the second
1 See I. 27c, 32c, 36a, 53c, 6la, 68c, 73, 77, 79c, 85a, and 115a, ll. 59a, 69a,
73c, 100c, 103c, 125a, 126, 127, 136a, 137, 138a, 147a 162a, 166a, 187c, 188a,
190c, 192a, 194a and 207a. 2 H. D. Velankar: Vittajarisamuccaya of Virahanka JBBRAS 1929 and 1932; Chandah
kosa in the appendix to his paper "Apabhraísa Metres' in the Journal of the
University of Bombay, Nov. 1933; Kavidarpana in the Annals of the B, OR, I. 1935 3 In view of the Nom. Sg. termination in Apabhramsa, we expect the reading nèüraü. 4 Kavyalankara IV. 15 and 21.
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