Appendix 6 - Regarding the eighth shloka of the fourth act

The Sloka 8 of the 4th Act is an instance of (vide Appendix 1), being a mixture metre in the fourth line and Vedic fa³¿¶ (*) one kind in the first and the third lines, and another kind in the second line. f plays an unique part in the Rv, 2/5 of its verses being written in this metre. (Cf. "tirnatamam strtatamam gayatryadibhyo bahulatvad seyam tirnatama ca " - Durgacarya. Also Aitareya Brahmana 3/28). Though there are rules for the structure of far, yet these are often disregarded. (Vide Vedic Reader and Grammar by Dr. Macdonald). Sometime instead of 11-syllables there are ten syllables, and sometimes even 12-syllables. The first of the 2-syllables, is sometimes, but rarely long, in old hymns of the Rv., still more rarely in later hymns, and hardly even ins. Mahamahopadhyaya Haridasa Siddhanta-Vagissha has pointed out that exact parallels of the 1 st 3 lines of Sl. 8 are found in the Vedas (Vide Com.) Hence Dr. Williams' remark "Kali. tried to imitate Vedic metres but failed" is nonsensical. In Classical Sanskrit about 40 11-syllablemetres such as anava, anukula, indira, upacitra, upasthita, kupurusajanita, drata, bhadrika, bhramaravilasita, motanakama, rathoddhata, vatoma, salini, sikhandita, syeni, sandravada, sumukhi, svati &c. (Vide 'yamadamana ' for the whole list) originated from but none of these have exact similarity with the 1 st three lines of Sl. 8. (as found in the 4 th line) and aff, however, wonderfully tally with the second line and the first & the third lines of $1 8 respectively, only 'difference' is that the first syllable of vatarmi & salini is always long, where as it is short in $1. 9. Perhaps for this striking - -

( ii ) resemblance, N. calls it a mixture of salini (2 nd & 4 th lines) and vatormi (1 st & 3 rd lines). He seems to have considered single difference negligible. Inter alias it may be said that in musical science though 'bhairavi ' - ragini must have rsabha, gandhara, dhaivata & nisada all soft (komala ) but many a renowned musician (including ravindranatha ) has suddha rsama in bhairavi | One may be tempted to say that Kali taking the latitude of the rsi s (sarva vighayah chandasi va kalpikah ) has created a new type of salini & vatormi with a slight variation. Any way the metre is upajati (tristupa + salini ) Some, however, considering " salini " to be a variety of "tristupa ", take the whole Sloka as composed of Vedic tristupa | [ Sloka 8, Act IV with Vedic Accent. ] ami vedim paritah valrpta- dhisnyah valrpta-dhisnyah samidvantah pranta samstirna-darbhah | 1 a pa॒ghnanto duri॒tam havya - gandhaih - vaitanastvam vahvayah pavayantu || ||