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[ 2 ] Naturally neither the number of Akşaras nor the particular order in which the short and long ones in them follow each other is of any consequence in these metres. Their Pādas must contain the prescribed number of Mātrās, which may be made up in any way, with the following two broad exceptions : (1) these Mātrās must be divisible into smaller groups of three to seven Mātrās; (2) no long letter must occur at the junction of these smaller groups, i.e. it must not combine in itself the last Mātrā of an earlier group, and the initial Mātrā of the following group, thus keeping the two groups mutually distinguished and independent. It is on account of this latter rule that a mere adding of a required number of Mātrās cannot give us the particular metre. It also serves as the principie of division in the case of Metres having the same number of Mātrās in each of their Pādas.
These Mātrā-Vţattas are turned into Tāla Vrattas in the hands of the Prāksta and the Apabhramsa poets of the middle ages. An additional type of metrical music is employed in them; it depends upon the Tāla or a recurring stress controlled by the Kāla-Mātrā. A KālaMātrā is that portion of time which is normally taken by the pronounciation of a short Akşara and thus corresponds to the older Akşara Mātrā. A Pāda of these metres is similarly divisible into several groups of such Kāla Mātrās, which may contain from 4 to 7 Mātrās in each; but the principle of Tāla requires that a line or Pāda must be made up of the same type of group or groups whether of 4, 5, 6, or % Kāla-Mātrās. The Kāla Mātrās in any one of these groups may be made up normally by employing Akşaras which yield a corresponding number of the Akşara Mātrās; but this is not absolutely necessary and this is the characteristic of the popular Apabhrams'a poetry and the poet may employ at will Akşaras which will normally yield a smaller or larger number of Akşara Mātrās, provided these yield the required number of Kāla Mātrās in their pronounciation. This is done by pronouncing short Aksaras long and vice versa, as also by continuation of the sound of the earlier Akşara for making up the required number of the Kāla Mātrās, without employing any new Akşara at all. The above mentioned rule No. 2 in the case of the Mātrās Vsttas is strictly applicable even here and a long letter must not be employed at the junction of the two groups of Kāla Mātrās, combining in itself the
