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Two: Description of the Metres

2.16 Old Gãti

This appears to be the earliest of the bar metres, and indeed, is most probably a transitional metre between mattàcchandas and gaõacchandas metres. There are two structures to the metre: the first is the normal form; the second is an extended form, which after the word break, restarts with a full gaõa, thus:

Normal structure:

Extended structure:

In the 2nd and 6th gaõas the pattern ÈÜ sometimes occurs, but ÜÛÛ is very rare in any gaõa. The opening gaõa quite frequently looks like this: ÛÜ ; in this case we have to count the initial syllable as heavy (pàdàdigaru) to make up the mattà count (cf. 2.10 above). In the normal form we sometimes find that the 4th gaõa looks like this: Û,Ü ; in this case we have to count the light syllable, which occurs at the end of the first half of the pàdayuga as heavy (pàdantagaru), as in the measure metres. With the extended form cf. the extended Tuññhubha, 2.7 above.

Examples: Mettàsutta Khp 9; Tuvañakasutta Sn IV:14; Vangãsa's gàthàs (part) Th 1242-1245; Upàlisutta MN:56

Example from Tuvañakasutta (vs 922-3):