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Description of the Metres

In what follows these conventions are employed:

One of the more interesting aspects of Aèvaghoùa's prosody, at least for someone coming from a background in Pàëi and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, is its regularity, and almost complete lack of license in regard to to the metre. It is necessary therefore at the outset to point out that in the whole text as we have presented it here:

There are twelve metres employed by Aèvaghoùa in the text, or at least in what remains of it, ⁰² there are 1010 verses in all which are listed here in descending order according to the frequency of their occurrence:

The first four of these metres are used in extensio, and therefore occur that more often, the other metres are employed as a prosodic flourish to round off the Chapters.

We can further organise the metres according to their structure: the following are Samavutta metres, having 4 similar lines to the verse (608 verses, 60%):

These three are Addhasamavutta metres, having 2 dissimilar lines to the verse (105 verses, 10%):

and there is also the øloka metre (accounting for 297 verses, 30%), which by this stage in its develoment, doesn't easily fit into any of the categories of Classical Indian prosody. ⁰³

The main metres are described employed in Buddhacarita are described first, and then the Classical metres that are used to conclude the various chapters.

1. Upajàti (475 verses)

The Upajàti lines found in Buddhacarita are far in excess of any other metre, and Aèvaghoùa's handling of the metre is faultless. The basic scheme of the Upajàti in Aèvaghoùa's prosody may be described as having 2 lines showing the following structure:

This gives two basic lines of either ÜÜÛÜÐÜÛÛÐÜÛÜÅ, known as Indravajrà, or ÛÜÛÜÐÜÛÛÐÜÛÜÅ, known as Upendravajrà. In the text that is printed here there are 1285 Indravajrà lines; and 615 Upendravajrà, which therefore shows a marked preference for the former scheme.

These two different lines can occur in any position and any order in the two pàdayuga-s that make up a verse. There are therefore 16 different species of Upajàti verse, which have all been given individual names in the Classical prosodies. ⁰⁴ It is of some interest to see how the lines are distributed here.

It is quite remarkable how the Indravajrà lines dominate in the Upajàti verses, with the Indravajrà lines far in excess of any other, and the verses containing 3 Indravajrà lines coming next. The Upendravajrà are significantly least in occurrence.

The breaks, which vary widely in the earlier stages of Indian prosody are here always found to be ÜÛÛ, and similarly there is no significance attached to the caesura, which may occur anywhere in the line.

We can see from the sandhi that the pàda-s in the Upajàti lines were taken together for pronounciation, which therefore differs from the early Pàëi verses, where the pàda is the normal unit for purposes of pronunciation. ⁰⁶

Most of Chapters I, II, III, VII, IX, X, XI, and XIII are written in this metre.

2. Vaüèastha (124 verses)

Closely related to the Upajàti meter is Vaüèastha, which is derived from the 12 syllable Jagatã class of metres. The metre though is much more restricted that Upajàti or Jagatã, having a very definite scheme to the metre that occurs in all four lines:

which is similar then to the Upendravajrà metre (ÛÜÛÜÐÜÛÛÐÜÛÜÅ) in the Upajàti class, with an extra light syllable in penultimate position. Here again the caesura is of no significance.

Nearly the whole of Chapter XIII is written in this metre; and it's Classical structure also made it a favorite at the conclusion of Chapters in the work, so that a run of 16 verses in Vaüèastha metre is used to conclude Chapter XII, and there are 3 verses in this metre at the conclusion of Chapter VI; besides these Vaüèastha is also used as a run up to the concluding verse in a different metre in Chapters III, IV, IX, and XIII.

3. øloka (297 verses)

I have elsewhere described the øloka metre, as being an Addhasamavutta metre. ⁰⁷ This holds true for the early stages of Indian prosody, but by Aèvaghoùa's time, the Addhasamavutta metres had changed considerably, in that nearly all the syllables are fixed in weight, and the øloka, which has very variable quantities will no longer fit into the category.

By far the most common form of the metre is the pathyà, which in this text shows the following form:

in the 2nd and 3rd positions of each pàda, two successive light syllables are not allowed; and in the opening of the posterior half of the line the pattern ÅÜÛÜ is not allowed. ⁰⁸

The pathyà form of the metre occurs in the text presented here 529 times, which given that there are 593 pàdayuga-s in the øloka metre, means that it occurs in 89% of the lines, which is typical of the Classical period.

There are only 3 variations that occur in the prior line, which can be outlined here:

Notice that in the navipulà-s and bhavipulàs-s a heavy syllable always occurs in 4th position and at the end of the pàda. ⁰⁹ In the mavipulà the opening ÅÜÛÜ always occurs, and there is normally a caesura after the 5th syllable. ¹⁰ The bhavipulà lines here always show the same opening, so that both bhavipulà and mavipulà have fixed quantities for most of the line.

The metre is employed as then main metre in Chapters IV, VI, XII, and what remains of Chapter XIV.

4. Aupacchandasaka (78 Verses)

In the early prosody the Aupacchandasaka was very free in its opening, the important thing being that it should have 6 màtrà in the opening of the prior line, and 8 in the posterior, with the cadence ÜÛÜÛÜÜ; over time the most popular of the openings became fixed as the only proper scheme for the metre, and in Aèvaghoùa's prosody it is a true Addhasamavutta metre, with fixed quantities in both lines. The scheme for the verse, which occurs in the first 78 verses of Chapter 5, is as follows:

5. Other Metres

We are left now with the 6 metres which are used to conclude the various Chapters. They are all fixed in the schemes, and no variation is allowed in the lines except at the end of the pàdayuga, where the quantity is assured by the pause.

1. Puùpitàgrà = (26 verses)

The Puùpitàgrà metre, which is derived from Aupacchandasaka, with resolution of the 3rd syllable in both lines. It is employed to conclude Chapters I, V, and VIII.

2. Rucirà = (3 verses)

The Rucirà metre is derived from the Vaüèastha metre, with resolution of the 5th syllable, which gives it 14 syllables to the pàda. The scheme of the metre is as follows:

there is a definite caesura after the 4th syllable. The metre is only emplowed in 3 verses, twice at the conclusion of Chapter III, and again at the conclusion of Chapter XII.

3. Praharùiõã = (3 verses)

This metre concludes two Chapters, numbers IX (2 verses), and X, it's scheme can be given as:

and again there is a definite caesura in the line, this time at the 3rd after a run of heavy syllables.

4. Màlinã = (2 verses)

In contrast Màlinã has a run of 5 light syllables in the opening. It is used as the Classical metre which closes Chapters II and XIII; ¹¹ its scheme of 15 syllables can be outlined like this:

5. øikhariõã = (1 verse)

This is a 17-syllable metre, which is used at the conclusion of Chapter IV, it's scheme, which has a definite caesura after the 6th syllable is as follows:

6. Aparavaktra = (1 verse)

This metre is similar to Puùpitàgrà, but with the Vaitàlãya cadence, thereby having the followng scheme:

It occurs as the final verse of Chapter VII.