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xiv सटीको वृत्तजातिसमुच्चयः
INTRODUCTION Hemacandra understands the word. According to this connotation only three of the eight kinds mentioned above may be regarded as proper Prastāras. But our author seems to have understood the word a little differently. Prastāra according to him is (1) the 'spreading out of the various forms of a metre, as also (2) the 'spreading out of the figures connected with it, so as to indicate the number of short and long letters and the like. Secondarily, the word is also used in the sense of one of the various forms of a metre'. Virahānka seems to have neglected the fact that according to this double connotation of the word, Prastāra may include also the Laghukriya and the Samkhyā, which are mentioned among the six Pratyayas, of which Prastāra is the first. Accordingly when Virahānka comes to treat of these two, namely Laghukriyā and. Samkhyā, he finds that the subject has already been treated under Prastāra and so he only gives additional methods of doing these two. On the other hand, Hemacandra took the word in the first of the two senses mentioned above, and therefore, he describes only the two, namely, the Patākā and the Samudra, under Prastāra, without of course giving these names.26 The third, namely, the Viparīta Samudra, is neglected by him as it is not an important variety, being only the reverse of the Samudra. From the remaining five Prastāras, he describes only the Sūci under the Pratyaya Laghukriyā. Here too, he does not mention the name. As for Pingala,27 he mentions Meru and Patākā, but does not call them Prastāras. His Meru is for knowing the total number of the permutations of a given metre containing one or more short or long letters, while from his Patākā, the serial number of any of these permutations is ascertained. Pingala mentions two varieties each of Meru and Patākā, namely, Varņameru and Mātrāmeru; Varņapatākā and Mātrāpatākā. Virahānka's Meru agrees with Pingala's Varņameru, but his Patākā is entirely different. Pingala again does not use the word Pratyaya though he seems to know the term Prastāra used in the sense28 of a 'permutation in particular'. Hemacandra knows both the terms and his division of the Pratyayas is more logical than that of Virahānka as seen above. If we are permitted to assume that the present form of the Prākrta Paingala is but an amplification of an older work, we may perhaps remark that the treatment of Pingala,
25. See Chandonušāsana of Hemacandra, Nirnaya Sagara Press edition of 1912 by
Devakaran Mulchand, p. 466, line 4: prastāryate iti prastārah vrttānām vistarato vinyāsaḥ. Chandonuśāsana of Hemacandra, Nirnaya Sagar Press edition of 1912 by
Devakaran Mulchand, p. 46b, line 6 to p. 47b, line 12. 27. Prākrta Paingala I. 43-50. 28. Prākrta Paingala uses the word Prastāra in its secondary sense of one of the
permutations of forms' at 1.44 and in the passage which introduces 1.50.
