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[3] Kāla Mātrās of an earlier group and the initial Kāla Mātrā of the following group. Many of the metres defined in the Prakrta Paingala are, as a matter of fact, Tāla Vrattas, though they are included under Mātrā of the Varna Vịttas, and are not recognised as such either by the Prakrta Paingala or any other prosodist who defines them. Sanskrit and Prāksta prosodists do not show any consciousness of the principle of Țāla as a source of metrical music and consequently do not admit a distinct class of Tāla Vrttas, in their manuals and treatises. Our author is, of course, no exception to this.
In the work before us, namely the Vrtta Muktāvalī, the author who is also a poet of high poetical merit, has treated all these three or rather four kinds of metres; but he does not divide them into Sanskrit and Praksta, (or Sanskrit, Prāksta and Apabhraṁsa as Hemacandra has done) metres, and treats all of these as Sanskrit metres only, giving illustrations composed by himself in the case of the non-Vedic metres. The work is divided into three Gumphas or chapters; in the first, Vedic metres are treated with illustrations, on the basis of Pingala's Chandas-Sūtra Adhyayas 2-4. The second Gumpha is devoted to the Mātrā Vrttas; it begins with the Gathā and its divisions and derivatives; they are then followed by the other Mātrā Vrttas of 4 and 6 Pādas constituted with the different Mātra Gaņas mentioned above. In his Chandas-Sūtra Pingala has defined and employed only one Mātra Gana, namely, the Caturmātrā; but our author following the lead of the Prākrta Paingala has employed now and then even the other Mātrā Gaņas in formulating his definitions of more than 30 Mātrā Ganas. Our author has closely followed the Prākrta Paingala in selecting and defining these Mātrā Vsttas, but as said above, has treated all of them as Sanskrit Mātrā Vsttas. In the third Gumpha the author definęs and illustrates the Varna Vsttas; here too he has generally followed the Prākrta Paingala.
The author, Shri Kršņabhatta of the Tailanga Kula was patronised by King Jayasimha (perhaps the same as Sawāi Jayasimha, see v-257) of Jaipur, who bore the title of Rājādhirāja (cf. vv. II. 3,6,7,31 etc.) and ruled over the state during 1699-1743 A.D. Some of the illustrations refer to this patron in highly eulogising terms but generally
