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Two: Description of the Metres

2.14 Svàgatà

In the Canon this metre has two dissimilar lines repeated to make up a verse, and the structure was still quite fluid:

Svàgatà odd lines:

Svàgatà even lines:

Note how close this is to âpàtalikà at this stage. In the later period however the even line is fixed and repeated four times, so that the structure is then defined as:

Examples: early, Mahàsamayasuttanta DN. 20 vs 3 (quoted below as the example); late: Jàtakanidànakathà vs 291.