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INTRODUCTORY NOTE (Kalanath Shastry, M.A., Sahityacharya )
The appa107 of Shri Krishna Bhatta needs no apology for its publication inspite of the fact that there are many other published works on Sanskrit prosody, as it marks a pointedly keen distinction from all other books extant in this field. It does not confine itself to the treatment of classical Sanskrit metres and their divisions only. It is intended to be a valuable reference bcok of prosody giving detailed definitions and illustrations of the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit metres of 'The Varnik system, ‘Prakrit Gathas' and 'Vraj Bhasha' measures of 'the Matrik system' and 'the Dandakas' (longer metres) of Sanskrit and Vraj Bhasha. Its first chapter deals with the nature and divisions of the Vedic metres, their definitions and examples. The second chapter discusses at length the Gathas of Prakrit and metres of Vraj Bhasha giving their definitions and illustrations in Sanskrit. The author has Sanskritised the names of some Vraj Bhasha metres. He calls 'all' as 'f&qn1', 'Ezeqe' as '9792' and 'tror' as 'attro's; others which could be derived according to Sanskrit grammar have been accepted in original. The third chapter deals with the classical Sanskrit metres and the longer "Dandakas'. The Vraj Bhasha Metres
The author, in this way, has tried to make the collection as much exhaustive as possible. Other Sanskrit books on metrics popularly known among the scholars deal with the classical Sanskrit metres only. But Krishna Kavi, perhaps for the first time, includes all the Vedic metres and the verse forms of Vraj Bhasha also extant in his time. He discusses as many as 42 Vraj Bhasha metres (pp. 23-36) and gives as illustrations verses composed by himself.
This is an unmistakable evidence of the fact that towards the beginning of the 18th century the interpenetration of the literary
1 p. 23.
2 p. 25.
sp. 29
