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