One: Scansion and Related Matters

 

1.16 Replacement

The compliment to resolution is when two light (or presumed light) syllables are replaced by one heavy one. This is seen much less frequently though than resolution. It should be noticed that there is a compliment to the rule of resolution when replacement takes place, as it always occurs after a word break, which shows that it is the first two syllables of a word that are presumed to be light. I call this the rule of replacement.

Example from Pārāyanavagga of Suttanipāta, (1068cd) Verse numbers when quoted in this form refer to the PTS editions of the texts as these are the ones most likely to be available to readers of this book, but the text of the verses may not always correspond to those editions, as many of the texts quoted herein have been established by the present author by comparing the Sinhalese, Burmese, Thai, and European editions. (Tuṭṭhubha lines, normally 11 syllables to the line, the (presumed) light 6th & 7th syllables in both lines have been replaced by one heavy one): 

−−⏑−¦−,−¦−⏑−−
Etaṁ viditvā sango ti loke,

⏑−⏑−¦⏑,−¦−⏑−−
bhavābhavāya mā kāsi taṇhan-ti. Note that the quotation marker at the end of the line is outside of the metre, as discussed in 1.13 above.