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$$ 3-5 )
सटीको वृत्तजातिसमुच्चयः 5. We shall now turn to the name Dvipadi which Virahānka has given to this strophic metre or this short lyric, where a Vastuka and a Gītikā are alternately employed for four times. It is evident that the Dvipadis enumerated and defined by Virahānka in chs. II and III are intended to be primarily the Vastukas which should form the basis of the strophic Dvipadi mentioned in vv. 1 to 7 here. At IV. 41-42 Virahānka mentions a strophic metre called Adhikākṣarā-śīrsaka which is made up of a stanza in the Adhikākṣarā metre (IV. 24) and a Gītikā. Here we find that the name of the constituent metre is given to the strophic one and the same might be expected in the present case. Dvipadi of four lines is mentioned by Virahānka's successors and it contains 28 Mātrās in each of the four lines. Similarly they mention' a Dvipadī-Khanda which is a strophic metre made up of two stanzas in the Khanda metre followed by a Gīti. Here too we find that the constituent metre namely the Khanda lends its name to the strophic one; it is therefore not impossible that the name Dvipadi was first given to a Catuspadi and then transferred to a strophic metre which had this Dvipadi as its basic metre. But the question remains as to why a Catuspads was called Dvipadi at all and the difficulty only increases when we know that the word has become a common name, instead of a proper name, in Virahānka's treatise. I have discussed this problem some years back10 and tried to arrive at some solution by postulating that the name was probably given to a Catuşpadi in view of halves of it being treated as musical units in the stanza. This explanation may be satisfactory in the case of the Ardhasama Vșttas, whether Catuspadi or Şațpadi, since the application of the name Pada to lines of unequal length may have been felt awkward and so it could have been used with reference to the Ardhas or the halves which are equal and similar to each other. But there is no sound reason for assuming that the name Dvipadi could have been given to a Catuspadi all whose lines are equal and similar. The case of the Vedic metres is slightly different. Their halves in the case of the metres of four lines are no doubt considered as a single unit, so far as Sandhi and Accent are concerned; but nevertheless they are never called Dvipadīs. The use of the name Dvipadi with reference to a Catuspadi by the later writers cannot be used as an evidence to show that that was the original signification of the word and that it was later transferred to the Strophic metre; for in the case of the
8. See Chandonuśāsana of Hemacandra IV. 56; Prāksta Paingala I. 152-153;
Chandahkośa v. 35. 9. Chandonuśāsana of Hemacandra IV. 77; Kavidarpana II. 36. 10. Apabhrarśa Metres II, para 43 (pp. 49-51).
