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Introduction to the Prosody of the Dhammapada

1: The Text

The text of the Dhammapada as presented here has been established through a comparison of the four standard printed editions:

I have also consulted the following texts for comparison of the readings (but have not entered the variants in the notes):

For the prosody I have consulted:

When I started preparing the Dhammapada for the Sri Lanka Tipitaka Project, I really had no intention of re-establishing the text, but as the work progressed, and I grew more familiar with the Buddha Jayanti Tripitaka edition (BJT), it became clear that there were many problems in the text, including non-standard forms, Sanskritisation, and unmetrical readings. I therefore began a comparison of BJT with the other main editions and started entering the variant readings found therein. During the process of that work it became clear that none of the other texts were quite satisfactory either, and what had started out as a simple re-presentation of the text as it is found in the Sri Lankan tradition, has finished up requiring a complete re-appraisal of the text, especially from the point of view of its metre.

As with any verse text, of course, it is essential to understand the prosody that underlies the composition, otherwise the likelihood is that wrong readings will find their way into the text. This should not be understood as implying that every verse should be rigidly conformed to a standard metre. Indeed it is such unskilful editing that is one of the faults in the main editions available to us. To understand the prosody correctly, one must know not only what is its standard pattern, but also what amount of deviation is allowed from the norms that otherwise prevail. And to understand that we must let the texts themselves be our guide.

2: Preliminaries

1: Resolution

A normal feature of Pàëi prosody is the resolution of one presumed heavy syllable into two light ones.⁰² As I have explained elsewhere⁰³ there is an underlying rule regarding resolution which states that only the first two syllables in a word may be resolved (including syllables that appear as the second half of a compound, or after a prefix).⁰⁴ With the help of this rule we are able to identify more accurately the underlying variation, especially in the Siloka prior lines.⁰⁵ In the text as here established I count resolution 61 times. 58 of these comply with the rule outlined above, and there are only two examples where the rule may not hold, the first at 27a, where the line in question is the opposite of a line in the preceding verse - something which often disturbs the prosody; and at 137c.

As can be seen from the table below the syllable most liable to resolution is the 1st, and in the Tuññhubha/Jagatã verses that occur in the Dhammapada it is the only resolution found (marked in red in the table - all the rest of the resolutions occur in Siloka lines).⁰⁶

We may note here that resolution is found in two places within the same line in the following lines: 185a (1st & 5th); 302f (1st & 4th).

2: Replacement

The compliment to the rule of resolution is the rule of replacement, which states that when 2 presumed light syllables are replaced by a heavy one, it is always the first two syllables in a word that are presumed to be light.

In this edition of the Dhammapada there is replacement in line with the rule at 40c & 125c. As with resolution, the application of the rule of replacement can also help us to identify the underlying structure of the verse, in a way that has not been recognised before. The reading at 19d (together with its repetition at 20f) has a Tuññhubha line with the following structure:

In discussing lines like this it has hitherto been thought that there is replacement of two shorts syllables in 6th & 7th position by one heavy (as is, indeed, normally the case).⁰⁷ However if we accept the rule, we can see that it is in fact the 5th & 6th syllables that have been replaced, and the underlying structure of the break is ,ÛÛÜ. This shows once again how helpful the discovery of these rules has been to understanding the correct prosody of the texts.

3: Sarabhatti

We must also include here the sarabhatti vowels (or epenthetic vowels) which have been written in the text, but which were not pronounced; these can sometimes look similar to resolution, but they can be easily identified as they nearly always involve two of the semi-vowels and/or the aspirate.⁰⁸ Sarabhatti is found in the following 49 places:

Note that occasionally in words that have sarabhatti vowels the vowel must have been pronounced and given its full value as in the following words, where it is necessary to count the vowel towards the metre:

4: Changes in word form

Because of the need to meet the requirements of the metre, which demands syllables of a specified length in certain places to produce the rhythms which make up a verse, there are certain changes which take place in word form.⁰⁹ As can be seen from the following lists it is the lengthening of i > ã, especially at the end of a word, that is by far the most common change that occurs.

long ã at the end of a word (36 instances):

long ã medially (14 instances):

other vowels lengthened medially (6 instances):

shortening of vowels (6 instances):

consonants doubled unhistorically (6 instances):

consonant groups simplified (4 instances):

niggahãta dropped (13 instances):

3: The Metres

There are 1733 lines in the Dhammapada, written in five metres, they are:

Siloka

By far the most common metre in the canon, and in the Dhammapada in particular, is the Siloka which accounts for some 86% of the verses found in the collection.¹¹ The Siloka is an addhasamavutta syllabic metre, which means it has two dissimilar lines which make up a pàdayuga; two pàdayugas (or occasionally three) make a verse. There are normally 8 syllables to each half of the pàdayuga (pair of lines).¹²

The Siloka has a pathyà (normal) structure and 7 variations. The normal structure can be described as follows:¹³

In the text as it has been established here there are pathyà lines in 82% of the Siloka pàdayugas.¹⁴ Another way to emphasise how high this percentage is, would be to note that there are only 7 Siloka verses in the whole collection that do not have pathyà lines in them. ¹⁵

7 variations occur in the first half of the pàdayuga. They have the following structure (with the percentage of their occurrence¹⁶):

There are also 8 lines that are irregular.¹⁷

Verse no 150 is unusual because, as it stands, it is in Anuññhubha metre, but whether we should count this as a separate metre, or as Siloka with 2 Anuññhubha variations in the prior line is not sure.

It is well established that in the opening of the Siloka metre, 2 shorts are normally avoided in 2nd and 3rd positions. That this is so can simply be proved by reference to the texts themselves, and noting that the number of times this opening appears is very much less than a random choice could possibly entail. Besides this though, we can also see that changes are regularly made to word forms in order to avoid the opening.

When we examine the Dhammapada itself we can see that changes have been made in the following words in order to avoid the unwanted opening: 13b, 14b (vuññhã); 143a (hirãnisedho); 245a (hirãmatà); 269b (munã); 374c (labhatã); 399c (khantãbalaü); 413c (nandã-). This pattern is repeated in any of the Siloka texts found in the canonical works.

However, on closer inspection we can see that there are a significant number of occasions in the Dhammapada when the pattern ÅÛÛÅÐ does in fact turn up in the opening, sometimes even when it would be easy to `correct' the metre if the redacters had felt that it was wrong. Note that there are no `correcting' variants at all recorded for the following lines, where this `wrong' opening occurs: 3a; 4a; 68c; 99b; 148c; 265a; 268c; 363a; 375c; 420a; 421a. That is 11 times, and is more than the number of corrections m.c. that are listed above. Because of this I have not felt obliged to correct this opening when it occurs, if there is not good manuscript evidence for it, and have therefore let it stand at 1c; 2c; 121e; 140b; 382b; 415c. In all 7 instances there are metrically more correct readings found in the PTS edition, but they are for the most part based on the slim evidence of just 2 old Thai manuscripts, which can be shown to have a habit of `correcting' the metre, when they felt it to be wrong.

Vetàlãya & Opacchandasaka

The most popular of the mattacchandas (measure) metres in the Dhammapada is the Vetàlãya. Whereas the Siloka, Tuññhubha & Jagatã metres¹⁸ are syllabic metres, and organise their lines by counting the syllables, in the mattacchandas metres it is the total number of measures (mattà) to the line which is the determining factor. In Vetàlãya the prior lines normally have 14 measures, and the posterior lines 16. With both the cadence is the same: ÜÛÜÛÅ. There are 105 lines in 30 verses in this metre, which is roughly 5.5% of the total number of verses.

There are only two verses in the Opacchandasaka metre, Nos 184 & 371, and some odd lines that turn up in what are otherwise Vetàlãya verses.¹⁹ This metre normally has 16 measures in the prior line, and 18 in the posterior. The cadence is similar to Vetàlãya, with an extra, heavy, syllable in penultimate position: ÜÛÜÛÜÅ.

The description of the openings is the same for both metres, so they will be treated together here.

In the prior lines the openings are:

In 4 places we find this opening ÜÛÛÜ (179a; 235a; 348a; 388a); once ÜÛÛÛÛ (284a); once ÛÛÛÛÜ (95a); and once ÜÜÜ (349c). In this text I count the following prior lines as irregular: 24c; 45c; 237c; 334c; 349a; 350c; 362a.²²

In the posterior lines the openings are:

In 2 places we find this opening ÛÛÛÛÜÛÛ, which looks like a variation of the 2nd opening above (235b; 324d); once ÜÛÛÜÛÛ²⁵ (342d); and once ÛÜÜÛÜ (179b). There are 5 irregular lines: 236d; 240b; 324b; 343d; 362b.²⁶

The first of the openings listed above seems to have a secondary form, with a heavy syllable where we would expect to find a light one, giving the form ÜÛÜÜÛÛ. This opening occurs with such frequency,²⁷ that there can be no doubt that the redacters felt that it was an acceptable variation. Various theories have been suggested to account for this variation,²⁸ but upto now none of them are really very satisfactory.²⁹

It is perhaps worth noting here that in verse, the last syllable in the line is always counted as heavy, no matter what its real length is. We could perhaps suggest that this phenomena, which is known as pàdantagaru, may well find its compliment here, where the first syllable sometimes has to be counted as light m.c., no matter what its true length is. We could perhaps call this phenomena pàdàdilahu, which would also be complimentary to the phenomena of pàdàdigaru, which is found in gaõacchandas verses.

Tuññhubha & Jagatã

Tuññhubha is a syllablic samavutta metre normally having 11 syllables to the line,³⁰ and 4 lines to the verse. Approximately 7% of the verses in the Dhammapada are in this metre. The shape of the Tuññhubha line can be defined thus: ÅÜÅÜÐÅÛØÐÜÛÜÅ.

Jagatã is similar but has an extra, short, syllable in penultiumate position, giving a line which is defined thus: ÅÜÅÜÐÅÛØÐÜÛÜÛÅ. 2% of the lines are in this metre.

There are many forms to the break, but note that the sequence ÜÛÛ is very common, accounting for approximately 73% of the breaks, no matter where the caesura falls:

Other regular forms:

The extended form of the metre, pausing at the fifth and restarting from the same syllable, occurs in 3 places, showing the following forms:

Normally in the Tuññhubha break there is a light syllable in 6th position and most scholars³¹ have refused to countenance the possibility of a heavy syllable occurring in that position. However, as I have shown elsewhere (see my Parayanavagga), in the early verses there is one pattern to the break which does have a heavy 6th which occurs so regularly that it must be regarded as an acceptable variation. In this edition of the Dhammapada we find the same break occuring in 3 places:

There are 3 other occasions where we have a heavy 6th. They are ,ÜÜÛ 144b; 353c. & ,ÛÜÛ 108b. In each case we should probably correct the way we take the reading. See the notes in the text for a discussion.

There are 4 places where the break has only 2 syllables owing to replacement occurring at the 6th (see above).

It should be noted that 347a is unusual in that there is nowhere we can easily count a break as occuring. The following lines, which are irregular, are commented on in the text: 84c, 329d; 330d.