Outline of the Metres Home Page   Next Section

One: Scansion and Related Matters

1.11 Niggahãta

As can be seen in 1.1 above, a short vowel followed by niggahãta -ü is heavy metrically, while if it is followed by labial -m (and then a vowel) it is light metrically. The retention of niggahãta, or the change to labial -m before a vowel was somewhat fluid even in prose in the canon. In line with our discussion in 1.8 above these alternatives may be applied according to the needs of the metre. Occasionally in verse we find that niggahãta is dropped altogether from the end of a word so as to leave the last syllable open and light. Example from Dhammapada (vs 183d):