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148 सवृत्तिकः कविदर्पणः
BRIEF NOTES but he permits any number of these Gaņas, if the same number of them is employed in all the Pādas. Actually, his commentator, states how other teachers permit a Dandaka with 7 or 9 or 11 Raganas in it. The shortest seems to be one with 7 and was called Candavrsțiprapāta, Candavrsti-prayāta or merely Candavrsti. The longest contained 16 of them and was known as Bhujanga as the commentator tells us. The author mentions only Śankha as the last containing
14 Raganas. V. 107: Pracitaka is a common name applied to any Dandaka which con
tains 7 Trikas of the same kind except the Ragana (and, of course, the Magana and the Nagana whose employment cannot introduce any variety and, therefore, cannot be a source of any Varna Sangīta) coming after the initial 6 short letters. See Music and Metres, p. 202. This last, namely, the use of 6 short letters at the commencement, appears to be an old characteristic of the metre, even though Dandakas with 3, 4, 5, or even 7 short letters at the commencement are found to exist; see Jayadāman, p. 147-148. Pingala at Chandassütra 7.32-35, mentions only one Dandaka, namely, the CandavȚstiprapāta and gives the common name Pracita to any other Dandaka. His commentator Halāyudha, however, restricts this name only to those Dandakas which contain a smaller or larger number of Ragaņas, but this is against the practice of the later prosodists, who reserve the name for any Dandaka which does not contain the Raganas. Varāhamihira knew and employed these Dandakas in his Brhat Samhità ch. 103; but he uses two more, Varņaka and Samudra. According to his commentator. Utpala, the two ancient prosodists, Rata and Mandavya admitted only seven Dandakas of which the first is called Suvarna by them; this is the same as the Candavrstiprayāta of others. Pingala himself at 7.34, mentions that these two authors did not agree with him about the
name of the Dandaka. Vv. 108-109: Our author mentions two more Dandakas which are based
on an alternative succession of any number of short and long letters in a Pāda, provided, of course, the same number is employed in all the Pādas. These two are mentioned only by Svayambhu and Hemacandra, besides by our author. Jayakīrti's treatment of this metre, namely, the Dandaka, is more interesting (cf. JK. 6.33-34), as he describes its varieties in consonance with the actual practice of his day in the Karnataka, rather than in a purely conventional manner. This peculiar metrical device is the ruling factor of the Nārācas in the Ajita-śānti-Stava, for which see App. III, Note on v. 14. ..
