CHAPTER XIII. 145
We give the latter signs in an inverted order, since
the Hindus read from the left to the right.
I have already once pleaded as my excuse, and do so
here a second time, that my slender knowledge of this
science does not enable me to give the reader a complete
insight into the subject. Still I take the greatest pains
with it, though I am well aware that it is only very
little I can give.
The name Vritta applies to each ionr-pdda metre in On the
which the signs of both the prosody and the number of vritta.
the syllables are like each other, according to a certain
correspondence of the pddas among themselves, so that
if you know one pdda, you know also the other ones,
for they are like it. Further, there is a law that Sb pdda
cannot have less than four syllables, since a pdda with
less does not occur in the Yeda. For the same reason
the smallest number of the syllables of a pdda is four,
the largest twenty-six. In consequence, there are
twenty-three varieties of the Vritta metre, which we
shall here enumerate :—
1. The pdda has four heavy syllables {guru), and here you can¬
not put two laghu in the place of one guru.
2. The nature of the second kind of the pdda is not clear to me,
so I omit it.
3. This pdda is built of
ghana + ■ paksha.
ill! <<
4. = 2 guru + 2 laghu + 3 guru.
<< II <<<
It would be better to describe this pdda as = paksha +
jvalana + paksha.
5. = 2 krittikd + jvalana + paksha.
< 1 < I II < < <
6. = ghana + madhya + paksha. Page 71.
nil !<! <<
7. = ghana + parvata + jvalana. ,
Mil <ll II <
VOL. I, K