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Xxvi
सवृत्तिकः कविदर्पणः
( INTRODUCTION
Sama Varņa Vștta). He also seems to mean that even the Mātrā Vrttas which are of the Sama Catuspadī type like Mātrāsamaka, Nrtyagati and Natacaraṇa, are to be called by the name Vitāna. On the other hand, the commentator of the Jānāśrayī seems to have held the view that the threefold classification applied only to the Sama Varņa Vșttas, since he employs the Sama Varna Vșttas having 8, 6, 12 and 10 Akşaras in a Pāda only, for illustrating the three classes. This view is also shared by Hemacandra and the commentator of the Kavidarpana, so far as their words are concerned, as said above in the last paragraph. But the fact that Hemacandra mentions Samānikā and Pramānikā as proper names of two metres of the Anuştubh class and then defines Vitāna in relation to them, shows that in actual practice he took Vitāna as applicable only to the Sama Vrttas of the Anustubh class, though his words unmistakably convey his awareness of an older tradition by which the term was applied to any Sama Varņa Vịtta. This is further borne out by the illustrations of Vitāna which Hemacandra gives and which are all from the Anustubh class. In this connection I may also point out that according to Utpala, Vitāna has ten Aksaras in each of its four Pādas; they are made up of 3 Saganas and a long letter at the end.19 But according to Virahānka, VJS. 5.11, it is a metre of the Anustubh class having 8 letters in each Pāda, made up of 2 Bhagaņas and 2 long letters, (like the Citrapadā of Jayadeva). To sum up then, it is evident that according to Pingala, Jayadeva and the Jānāśrayi the word Vitāna signified any Varna Vștta, whether Sama, Ardhasama or Visama, if it differed from the Samānikā and the Pramāņikā in the order of their short and long letters. It signified a similar Sama Varna Vrtta only, in the opinion of the Ratnamañjūsā and perhaps also of the commentator of the Jānāśrayī. This second view seems to be supported unconscicusly by the words of Hemacandra and of the commentator of the Kavidarpana, which words reveal their knowledge of an older tradition supporting the view. Lastly, later writers like Kedāra, Jayakīrti, Hemacandra, and the author of the Kavidarpana held that the word Vitāna signified a similar metre, i.e., a metre which differed from Samānikā and Pramāņikā, of only the Anuştubh class, to which also the threefold classification of metres into Samānikā, Pramāṇikā and Vitāna belongs. Virahānka may be regarded as the exponent of this last view which considers Vitāna as a proper name. There is yet another word like Vitāna, the history of whose signification is interesting. It is Upajāti; this word is generally supposed to signify a metre which contains a mixture of the Pādas of the Indravajrā and the Upendravajrā. But Hemacandra 2.156-157 and our
19. Compare trisagair api viddhi vitānam : Utpala on Bệhat Samhitā, 103.46.
