[Concluding remark on Cala and Druta] The learned assert that the rules of Cala and Druta must be followed in all compositions. But experience may lead us to dissent from this doctrine. And that for the following reasons. These rules were strictly observed by some (not all) poets in the earliest ages. Several of the most popular Telugu poets of the last and present century deviate from these rules at pleasure: even that rule is neglected which requires the final vowel U to be elided in metre: and they unscrupulously insert N to prevent elision in several places wherein rule would forbid such a convenience.
The rule regarding Cala goes on a principle that may be understood if we consider what has happened in the English language. Saxon made much use of the letter N as a termination. This is sufficiently shewn in any page of Saxon: as for instance what is given in Johnson's Dictionary.
ON SOFTENING INITIAL CONSONANTS IN POETRY.
In a few compound nouns, initial consonants are softened. Thus K becomes G as fc98Jr"ooeu the share both of the government and of the inhabitants. T becomes D as «^^& a brother fc^esSM «ii brothers #o\& father. Hence 3S«o(££>e» mother and father. Cha becomes ja. Thus ^"jS*" a young sister «|L'3^o^> akka-jellendlu, more properly « S" "T^0^. sisters. T*§ IsSiMi hands and feet more properly T»fc"fi*oo, P. becomes B. Thus "^»S?S I said. P. becomes V. Thus StoosSTgau villages and hamlets.
In all these places, we perceive the change though the reason is not obvious.* The following rules are intended to convey the
[* Native tutors are fond of insisting greatly on these changes: but so little are these rules regarded that in common MSS. of poems, the spelling is devoid of rule. E. g. in M. XV. 2. 7. 8 the word xStfT^ is spelt in these ways in various MSS. ^'7^f
