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Gaõacchandas (âryà, Ariya) Tables

As stated in the Màtràcchandas section in the gaõacchandas metres a gaõa is made up of 4 màtrà, and can therefore be any one of the following shapes:

but in the definitions of the Gaõaccchandas metres allowed for in the prosodies, not every gaõa can contain each of these shapes; so e.g. jagaõa (ÛÜÛ) cannot appear in the odd-numbered gaõa-s. On the other hand in the 6th gaõa only jagaõa, sarvalaghu, or a single laghu can appear; and in the 8th gaõa the line is normally a single heavy syllable, but occasionally it is taken as a full gaõa, and is then either sagaõa (ÛÛÜ) or sarvaguru (ÜÜ).

When we take these factors into consideration then we can outline the various shapes that the metres can contain in each gaõa like this:

When drawing up the tables for the Gaõacchandas metres these restrictions have to be borne in mind.