Compound vowels (ai, au, the diphthongs) rhyme to either of the letters with which they are compounded.
The vowels ai» Eu nxr° rii and 2 lu are often considered as consonants : but being rarely used, merely as a feat, they are not worth notice. When they are used in prasa, they are disregarded because reckoned as vowels, and the prasa requires uniformity of consonants alone. Thus in press, $ and ^) would rhyme, but if or r, would not rhyme with because E is a consonant, and if one prasa line uses ^ or Uf, the other must use the same letter.
These rules are obvious. Others can only be acquired by practice. Of these, the most remarkable is regarding initial vowels. In the word ir*r>S to him, and the word goes under, the same consonant and vowel § occur, nor is it any objection that one is at the beginning and the other at the end of a word. Yet these two can never rhyme.
This and similar points are mere matters of taste, interesting to learned natives who write in verse and are experienced in its principles: but unprofitable to a foreigner, as he will never be expected to compose in Telugu metre.
The rules for rhyme furnish a valuable criterion in orthography. Thus the word ^&55iJ To live is also spelt \_«JfcSSt> a peculiarity which the prasa rhyme demonstrates: because it answers to another word which uses D. Many quotations in the Telugu dictionary now ready for printing are marked "yati" or "prasa" denoting that the passage so noted proves the spelling. For instance—the words and \w«£SS now adduced. Also
sS» (Tadbhavam of "S^*55") which some erroneously write -tp°k<6& ehhagamu: also ^tr^tf sS» q. y.
Some verses occur with Antya niyamam Theottghoot as Kanyaca VIII. 316 and Manu 3, 30 &c.
Though accuracy of rhyme is studied, the most celebrated poems furnish instances of careless rhymes. Thus in the Vasu Charitra 3. 152. tJ|| The second line has chi rhyming to za—thus *jSS5 jfes5cr<;S;>lTT"^i£a» * Kg^jB^3o(S^55, &c. Both the ancient commentators insist much on matters of prosody and rhyme: Tet on this remarkable deviation both are silent.
