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JAINISM IN LITERARY TRADITION. 123 above. It will therefore be of interest to examine closely the details of distribution of this metre in Nannaya's Bhāratam. Mough this metre is described in Nāgavarma's Canavese prosody, we find few traces of it in the works of Pampa and Nripatunga • that I have been able to examine. 'In 269-271 Nāgavarma gives the scheme for Sisa. Padya.
In Nannaya's Mahābhāratam as its analysis will show, the Sisa Padya of this type predominates. The Sisa Padya from the Dirghasi inscription is also of this type.
(c) Prasam iz the Vrittams
Telugu Laksanikas claim their introduction of Prasam in the Sanskrit Vrittam as an 'improvement they have made on Sanskrit prosody. Ingleed, it is a variety of alliteration which is regarded by Sanskrit rhetoricians as a special feature of South Indian compositions. Indeed, Telugú prosody has become so far fixed to-day owing to centuries of this tradition that a modern Telugu þoet and pandit is horrified to see Prasa used in purely Sanskrit Vrittams like Sardula Vikriditam as merely a variable ornament in a modern.composition. This tradition has become fixed well within the life-time of the second greatopoet of the Telugu Mahābhărata, viz., Tikkana Somayaji. In the 9th chapter of Kavyalankara cudamani, of Vinnakota , Peddana, which is devoted to a description of Telugu grammar (a chapter lately published), a
