పుట:A grammar of the Telugu language.pdf/330

వికీసోర్స్ నుండి
ఈ పుట ఆమోదించబడ్డది

A line is called ^S^padamu or tf charan'amu, meaning a foot: of which each &es§£xi padyamu or stanza has four. A foot (as it is called in Latin) is x"r»s&> ganamu, and consists of two, three or four syllables. A syllable is called wJktf Ao axaramu, i. e. letter. Thus (J^^B^^try-axara-sabdamu means a word of three syllables, like ~&c>'$Lj%'&0 Sam-scru-tamu, the Sanscrit language.

Prose, called £TS$£x> vachanamu, is in most of the poems, interspersed among the stanzas: it is harmoniously modulated (somewhat like that in Lalla Rookh) or Terentian iambics but is not under any law of scansion. The letter (meaning vachanamu) is placed at the beginning of each passage of prose: which is entirely different from the prose of every day life.

The Feet are denoted by letters, Ma, Pa, Ra, Sa, Ta, Ja, Bha, Na: which were selected by the ancient grammarians and are invariably retained in every Hindu language that uses the Sanscrit alphabet.

To facilitate recollection, I have in the following table placed opposite each ganam a Sanscrit and a Latin word containing the requisite syllables and beginning with the letter that denotes the foot. The ancient prosodians have so arranged this table that the first column contains alternately a long and a short: the second has two: and the third has four of each.

This table is called Xn^-fr^rstixi or Basis of numbers: Ganam and Rhythmus have the same meaning, Number (Zeunius in Anabas. Index: and Cleveland de Rhythmo. p. 95. 96.)