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The Prosody of the Patna Dharmapada

The prosody of the Patna Dharmapada is essentially the same as the prosody found in the Pàëi rescension of the text. In the description below I will follow in outline my Introduction to the Prosody of the Dhammapada, and will add in comparative statistics from the Pàëi text in square brackets.

1: Preliminaries

Resolution

As in the Pàëi text we find in the Patna Dharmapada that resolution of a presumed heavy syllable into two light syllables is a common feature of the prosody. Here also we see that the rule of resolution has been adhered to. The rule states that when resolution takes place it always involves the first two syllables of a word (including words that appear in compound, and after a prefix).

In the following text I have counted 67 instances of resolution, roughly half of which involve the 1st syllable in the line. Most of the resoltuions occur in øloka lines, but some also in Tuññhubha / Jagatã lines, which are marked in red below (the lines marked in green are from a very unusual Aupacchandasaka line).

There is another possible case of resolution at 375a, but I believe there we need to read -bhavati = -bhoti.

Replacement

There is also a rule of replacement, where 2 presumed light syllables are replaced by a heavy one, and there we can understand again that it is the first two syllables in a word that are light. Replacement in this text takes place at 115c, 227c, 228c, and 350c, which are all Triùñubh lines.

Changes in word form

There are many changes that take place in the forms of words in order to meet the requirements of the metre. Below an attempt has been made to collect all the instances of this phenonema that I have noticed. Some forms are doubtful because of a lack of evidence, and I have tried to err on the side of caution.

long ã at the end of a word (14 instances [36]): ⁰¹

ratã 60c, 211b
munã 127d
ãva 156b
gatã 211a
sugatã 213d
khàntã 239a
ayiragarahã 302c
vaññhã 351b, 352b, 353b, 354b, 355b, 356b

long ã medially (13 instances [14]):

satãmà 9d
bitãyatà, 11b
satãmato, 28a, 78a
pañãlàbho 82c, 334c
ahirãkena 164a
hirãmatà 165a
tritãyaü 210d
satãmanto 231a
satãmatàü 244d
jutãmanto 265e
[a]nupaèèãnàü 268a

other vowels lengthened medially (1 instance [6]):

-èàrãro 147e
appàmàtto 301a

consonants doubled unhistorically (3 instances [6]):

soggatiï 101d
kañukapphalaü 174d
akkuèalà 414b

shortening of vowels (6 instances [6]):

bhuÿjeyÏ 295c
mucceyÏ 303b, 304b, 305b
pañijàggreyÏ 312d
èiccheyÏ 375c

consonant groups simplified (7 instances [4]):

dukham 1e, 75b, 273c ⁰²
dukhena 80c
-dukhaü 144d
dukhà 145c
dukhitaü 260a

anusvàra dropped (12 instances [12]):

addhàna 141b
pañivadeyu 197b
phuseyu 197d
vièèàsa 212c, 272c
yesa 270d
påjeyu 285b
garaheyu 285b
devàna 292d
màccàna 334d
buddhàna 341d, 357d

Another important matter affecting the prosody of the text is the inclusion of svarabhakti vowels (broken or partial vowels), which are written in the text, but are normally ignored when reciting. We find svarabhakti vowels in the following words (here and in the text itself I mark svarabhakti vowels with superscript):

[a]nuparⁱyagu 247b
ayⁱragar^ahã 302c
ayⁱrakàntaü 339d
ayⁱrapathesu 120b
ayⁱrapravedite 348c
ayⁱraü 71b
ayⁱrà 120b
ayⁱro 246d
ar^ahanto 245c
arⁱhati 94d, 95d, 287b
arⁱyàõàü 15d, 69a, 314b, 315b
arⁱyasaccàni 218c
ekacarⁱyàm 313b
essarⁱyaü 178c
kayⁱrà 11c, 97ab, 98ab, 110a, 130b, 318a, 320c
kayⁱràtha 29c, 74a, 85d, 97c, 98c
kⁱleèehi 264d
naggacarⁱyà 195a
pañikayⁱràtha 109c
prabhåtarat^anà, 119a
payⁱràgate 104c, 105c
payⁱrodametha 264c
payⁱrupàsati 191b, 192b
ràja^riùayo 247b
vayⁱraü 307d
vih^arantaü 7a, 8a
sacittaparⁱyodamanaü 357c

It appears that owing to metrical licence these vowels were sometimes pronounced, and we must count the vowel towards the metre in the following words:

arahatàü 314a, 315a
kileèam 3d
garaheyu 285b
viharan 26c,
viharaüti 245c
viharàma 255d, 256d, 257d

Conjuncts not Making Position

In Pàëi words do not normally begin with a conjunct consonant, ⁰³ if in the morphology there could be a conjunct at the beginning of a word, normally it is first assimilated and then simplified, so that e.g. v. 2: *ppasannena >> pasannena (cf. 348, vippasannena, where the conjunct reappears in a compound).

In Patna on the other hand normally the conjunct is written though in many cases we can see from the metre that this is orthographic only. In the following list I identify the places where I believe we have to ignore the conjunct in order to produce a correct reading metrically:

krodhaü 402a
cchijjati 362a
ññhàõesu 45c
ññhàõehi 292c
ññhànàni 210a
ttàõatà 366d
praüÿavà 317d
praüÿà 62c
praüÿàya 136c, 329f
praüÿe 205c
prakkhittà 233c
pracinantaü 128a
prapuùpakàni 134c
prabhavanti 84c
pramatta- 137a
pravrajito 239c
prahàya 291c
pràcchanti 25c
pràõe 246c
pràmojjaü 61c
precca 3a, 4a
preccasàrã 411a, 412a
byåhaya 363c
brahmuõà 320b
bràhmaõ- 34bd, 35d, 36d, 37b, 38d, 39d, 40d, 41b, 43d, 44d, 45d, 46b, 47d, 48d, 49d
mrãyanti 14c
vrajanti 144c
èreyo 381d
sapraüÿaü 9a, 10a

sometimes a conjunct that appears mid-word also has to be ignored:

anubråhaye 181d
apraüÿassa 62a
aèraddho 332b
ujjuü 323c
vãtajjaraü 40c

but there are also some places where we have to count the conjunct in order to get a good reading metrically:

prajehiti 131d, 132d
pratãto 176c
pradhànaü 195c
prabhàü 247g
pràõesu 196c
pràpuõema 120d

There are many places where we simply can't tell from the metre whether we should mark the preceding syllable as light or heavy. As the majority have to be marked light, I mark the following as light also:

praüÿassa 63b
praõidhàya 302d
praduùñena 1c
pramajjati 20b, 21b 32f
pramajjittà 20a, 21a
pramajjeyà 27a
pramuÿcati 133b
pravattàraü 206a
pravaddhaüti 138c
pravuccati 236d, 37f
praèaüsito 287d
prasannena 2c
prasahate 8e
prahare 46a
pràtto 25d, 199c
priyà 'priyaü 58b
priyàpriyaü 74d
brahmacàrã 228ad

2: The Metres

In the text which follows there are 1734 lines in all (as against 1733 in the Pàëi Dhammapada); and just as in the Pàëi text there are just five metres found in the Patna Dharmapada:

I will give here a short description of the metres, though they are in all respects similar to the metres we find in Pàëi Canonical prosody.

øloka

The øloka metre accounts for 80% of the verses in the Patna Dharmapada. It is an eight-syllable ardhasamavÔtta metre, having a normal or regular structure and 6 variations. The distribution of the lines is as follows:

The Pathyà (normal) structure is as follows:

ÉÅÅÅÐÛÜÜéÐÐÉÅÅÅÐÛÜÛé

As in all the øloka lines the opening syllable of both the prior and the posterior lines may be a light syllable or a heavy syllable or occasionally two light syllables, when a heavy syllable is presumed resolved. ⁰⁵ The 2nd, 3rd and 4th syllables are either light or heavy, though sometimes we can see that two lights are avoided in 2nd and 3rd positions, this is by no means always adhered to. ⁰⁶ The last syllable is always counted as heavy, no matter what its natural weight, because there is a short pause after it (it is marked as é in the descriptions).

What was said above about the opening of the prior line also applies to the opening of the posterior line. Then comes the characteristic cadence to the pàdayuga (pair of lines), light-heavy-light-heavy. The distinguishing mark of the Pathyà is the cadence of the prior line, and it is mainly the different structure of that section that account for the variations (vipulà).

The variations make up some 17% of the øloka lines. The most common one in the Patna Dharmapada is mavipulà which has the following structure:

ÉÅÅÅÐÜ,ÜÜéÐÐÉÅÅÅÐÛÜÛé

Many times (though not invariably) we find the opening of the prior line looks like this: ÜÜÛÜÐ, and there should be a break after the 5th syllable. If both of these characteristics are missing I think we are no longer dealing with mavipulà, but with an irregular line, and I mark 274a as such.

The other variations are less common and can be distinguished by their prior line cadences:

There is a further variation that turns up at 261c, 339a, and 357a, which I call the Anuùñubh variation, owing to its similarlity to the Vedic metre of that name. Its structure is as follows:

ÉÅÅÅÐÛÜÛéÐÐÉÅÅÅÐÛÜÛé

That is, the prior line and the posterior line show the same structure. ⁰⁷

In this text as it stands there are some øloka lines that are either short of a syllable or two, as 273b with 6 syllables, and 184a with 7 syllables; or have one syllable extra as at 6d, 73c, 147c, 158a, 174b, 207a, 209a, 212b, 232b, 245c, 257c, 259c, 306b, 307d, 312c, 340a, 360f, and 370d. Most of these lines can be corrected quite easily, and seem to be a question of orthography, rather than malformation. See the notes attending these lines.

Vaitàlãya & Aupacchandasaka

These two metres are Màtràcchandas metres, whose structure is defined not by a syllable count, but by the number of màtras there are in a line, ⁰⁸ and by structure of the opening and the cadence. In this text there are 96 lines (6% of the total) in the Vaitàlãya metre; and 88 (5%) in Aupacchandasaka.

The basic form of the Vaitàlãya line is as follows:

ÈÈÈÐÜÛÜÛé
ÈÈÈÈÐÜÛÜÛé

We can see from this outline that the opening comes in pairs of two syllables, there being 6 màtra in the prior and 8 màtra in the posterior line. ⁰⁹ The cadence, which is similar to that of the øloka posterior line cadence, is always the same.

The two metres are similar in all respects except that there is an extra heavy syllable in penultimate position in the Aupacchandasaka metre, so that the structure is defined like this:

ÈÈÈÐÜÛÜÛÜé
ÈÈÈÈÐÜÛÜÛÜé

Sometimes these metres are mixed together in a verse, as at 52, 149, and 151; and we also find one verse having a mixture of øloka (ab) and Vaitàlãya (cd) at 100 and 101.

As the openings in these metres are in every respect similar, they can be treated together for description. In the prior line the form of the openings is as follows:

others (18 lines = 19%):

The most common posterior opening looks like this:

the following three are variations on this line:

others (10 lines):

Triùñubh & Jagatã

The Triùñubh and Jagatã are syllabic metres (varõacchandas) having very similar structures. The difference being that Triùñubh has 11 syllables to the line, and Jagatã has the same structure with an extra light syllable is penultimate position.

In this text there are 129 lines in Triùñubh metre and 28 in Jagatã. There is usually 4 lines to the verse, but 291 and 329 contain 6 lines; and very unusually 247 has 7 lines. Verses written in Triùñubh metre prevail, while there are only 2 verses in Pure Jagatã, the others are mixed.

The outline of these metres is as follows:

ÅÜÛÜÐÅÅÅÐÜÛÜ(Û)é

In the opening we sometimes find the 1st syllable has been resolved ÛÛÜÛÜÐ (9c, 115d, 144d, 291e, 350b, 381d); and occasionally we come across the Vedic opening: ÅÜÜÜÐ (vv. 109bd, 196b, 247d) .

The breaks come in various forms, with the structure ÜÛÛ prevailing (78%), no matter where the caesura is found:

also with resolution:

,ÐÛÛÛÛ 109c, 114b

we find the ravipulà, navipulà and savipulà breaks occasionally (13%):

as in the Pàëi verses there are many irregular breaks (9%), which include the following: