An Outline of the Metres in the Pali Canon

The idea for this book arose out of a talk I had with the English bhikkhu Ven. Pa¤¤ànanda, in which we discussed the struggle we had both been through at the beginning of our studies owing to the lack of a simple, comprehensive guide to Pàëi metrical composition.

Two monks who have very good knowledge of Pàëi and especially the verse texts, Ven. Pa¤¤ànanda and Ven. Medhaïkara, have very much helped me in preparing this work by reading it through and making a number of corrections and suggestions for improvement which have helped to clarify the presentation - without their generosity this book would be so much the poorer.

Please note that a version of this work has now been published by Indologica Taurinensia, Official Organ of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies, Volume XXXVI. Torino (Italy), 2000.

ânandajoti Bhikkhu
December, 2003

Introduction to the 2^nd Edition

In the light of the research that has gone into the work on the medieval prosody Vuttodaya, I have made a number of significant changes in the 2^nd edition of this work, mainly concerning the terminology that has been employed, which I will enumerate here:

1) I now think that the metre I previously identified as Vatta (following Warder, PM), is perhaps better identified as Siloka, which is the term used by the Buddha himself in Mahàsamayasuttanta, D. 20.

2) Following Warder in the first edition I referred to the variations to the Siloka as Vipulà 1, Vipulà 2, etc. There are a number of problems with this, not the least being that the system is incomplete. Now I prefer to identify them as Navipulà, Bhavipulà, etc. This is the normal way they are referred to in Indian works on the subject, and anyone interested in prosody will have to learn this terminology anyway, and it seems redundant to use a secondary set of terms.

3) In the terminology used in the 1^st edition I referred to both vowels and syllables as being short & long. This risks confusion, of course, and also goes against the useful distinction made in the prosodies, where vowels are identified as short (rassa) & long (dãgha); but syllables are distinguished as light (lahu) & heavy (garu). In this edition I have therefore introduced this distinction. This also entails speaking about the weight of the syllables, rather than their length.

4) A rule in regard to the weight of the syllables was accidently omitted in the 1st edition, which is that the syllables at the end of a line should always be marked as heavy, no matter what their natural weight is. I have added this rule in here and employed it in the descriptions of the metres, and the examples.

5) In the 1^st edition (again following Warder, PM), I identified the syllabic metres as akkharacchandas; I now prefer to use the term vaõõacchandas, which is more commonly found in the prosodies.

6) The metre class, following Warder, I named as aóóhasamavutta, has here been renamed as addhasamavutta, which is the form the word normally has in the medieval prosodies.

7) The metre I named as Vegavatã in the 1st edition, I now think should be called âpàtalikà, which is the name found in the prosodies; Vegavatã is a fixed metre derived from âpàtalikà.

8) A correction has been made to the description of the gaõa system in the gaõacchandas metres in the Index & Glossary.

I have also taken advantage of the opportunity to reformat the whole work to bring it line with current standards.

ânandajoti Bhikkhu
December, 2003

Introduction to the 3^rd Edition

In this edition I have introduced a further refinement to the description of the metres, which is to mark the final syllable as X (rather than as Å, as in previous editions); this sign indicates that although the syllable may be of light or heavy weight naturally, it is nevertheless taken as heavy, and is normally pronounced as such (a light syllable being slightly drawn out at the end of a line).

I have also made one or two small corrections, additions, and clarifications to the work.

ânandajoti Bhikkhu
May, 2004