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ŠS 16-17 ] सवृत्तिकः कविदर्पणः
xxy said so: abhyam samani-pramānibnyam .anyad astākşarapādam chando vitānam nāma : 'Any other metre having 8 Aksaras in its Pāda, which is different from Samāni and Pramānī, is called Vitāna'. Halāyudha has: given 4 different illustrations of the Vitāna, all of which have 8 Akşaras in their Pādas and the order of the short and long letters in which is different from the one cbtaining in Samānikā and Pramāņikā. It should also be noted how Halayudha has anticipated the word anustubh from Sūtra 5.9 for interpreting Sūtras 5.6-8, in order that this threefold classification into Samāna, Pramāna and Vitāna of metres should be applicable only to the metres of the Anustubh class. This manipulation and interpretation of the word vitāna by Halāyudha, however, makes the signification of that word quite uncertain.18 For Kedāra has defined only 6 metres of the Anustubh class including the Samānikā and the Pramānikā; so that according to him all those 9 metres defined by Hemacandra and all the 5 defined by Jayakīrti, but not mentioned by Kedāra, will have to be called Vitāna. The same will be true in the case of Hemacandra and Jayakirti and thus the signification of the term Vitāna becomes unsettled and. uncertain. Hemacandra gives 4 illustrations of the Vitāna, of which he copies 3 from Halāyudha; but one of these must be included under Nārāca which he has defined earlier, owing to the identical order of short and long letters in both. The fact, therefore, seems to be that all the three authors have followed the wrong lead of Halāyudha and missed the original signification of the word as intended by Pingala and understood by Jayadeva.
17. Other authors who treat the term Vitāna as a common name, and not as a proper one belonging to a particular metre, are the authors of the Jānāśrayi and the Ratnamañjūsa, both of whom are writers from South India. But the author of the Jānāśrayī mentions the threefold classification of metres into Samānikā, Pramānikā, and Vitāna at the commencement of his treatment of all the Varņa Vșttas like Pingala and Jayadeva; while the author of the Ratnamañjūsā mentions it at the beginning of the Sama Varna Vșttas, after finishing the treatment of the Ardhasama and the Vişama Varna Vrttas in earlier chapters. He clearly means thereby, that the name Vitāna and the threefold classification applies only to the Sama Varna Vșttas and not to the others. His commentator accordingly gives illustrations for all the three from the metres of the Jagati class, and remarks that the name Vitāna is to be applied to any metre beginning with Tanumadhyä and ending with Bhujangavijrmbhita (i.e., to any
18. Compare
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