Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 438

HINDU RHYMES
398
and
Thus, in two lines, one beginning
is called prasam.
with gopagni and the other with dipantram, pa is the
prasam.
For the yeti rhyme the letters ka, kaha, ksha, ga, gsha,
the simple tsha, and the aspirate tshaha, &c, may be
used.
For the prasam rhyme attention is, strictly speaking,
paid only to the consonant, which ought to be absolutely
the vowel does not matter so much. Thus da,
the same
de, di, do, du all rhyme together.
These kinds of rhymes,
however, are not considered fine.
Generally speaking, the more words there are in a line
having the yeti and the prasam alike, the more beautiful
they appear to the Hindus. For our part we should look
upon them as mere childish alliterations, recalling to our
minds the line of Ennius so often in the mouths of school-
boys
;
:
Tite fcute Tati tibi tanta, tyranne, tulisti
!
There are also other kinds of poetry, which, like ours,
have their rhyme at the end of the lines. In these cases
they end as a rule with the same consonant and sometimes
with the same word.
Generally speaking, the
hopeless,
difficulties of
and often puzzle Hindu
rhyme
are simply
versifiers themselves.
Verses.
With the padams,
or lines, arranged symmetrically with
regard to quantity and rhyme, are formed the padyams,
sometimes called slokams. They are, properly speaking,
stanzas or couplets, sometimes regular, sometimes irregular.
These padyams are of several kinds, and each has its
special name.
In the simple kanda-padyam certain feet only can be
introduced, in the same way as in Latin hexameters, in
which dactyls and spondees only are used. But a single
ganam, or foot, may sometimes comprise a whole line,
sucli as the following
Devaki-Deviki-Kamsudu.
The limits of this work hardly permit me to enter into
more minute details concerning the numerous rules to
:
which the structure and arrangement
of
Hindu poetry