An Outline of the Metres in the Pāḷi Canon

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Acknowledgements
The idea for this book arose out of a talk I had with the English
bhikkhu Ven. Paññānanda, in which we discussed the struggle we
had both been through at the beginning of our studies owing to the
lack of a simple, comprehensive guide to Pāḷi metrical composition.
Two monks who have very good knowledge of Pāḷi and especially
the verse texts, Ven. Paññānanda and Ven. Medhaṅkara, have very
much helped me in preparing this work by reading it through and
making a number of corrections and suggestions for improvement
which have helped to clarify the presentation - without their
generosity this book would be so much the poorer.
An earlier version of this work was published by Indologica
Taurinensia, Official Organ of the International Association of
Sanskrit Studies, Volume XXXVI. Torino (Italy), 2000.
Ānandajoti Bhikkhu
Preface to the 2nd Edition (December, 2003)
In the light of the research that has gone into the work on the
Medieval prosody Vuttodaya, I have made a number of significant
changes in the 2nd edition of this work, mainly concerning the
terminology that has been employed, which I will enumerate here:
1) I now think that the metre I previously identified as Vatta
(following Warder, PM), is perhaps better identified as Siloka, which
is the term used by the Buddha himself in Mahāsamayasuttanta, D.
20.
2) Following Warder in the first edition I also referred to the
variations to the Siloka as Vipulā 1, Vipulā 2, etc., but I now prefer
to identify them as Navipulā, Bhavipulā, etc. This is the normal way
they are referred to in Indian works on the subject, and anyone
interested in prosody will have to learn this terminology anyway, so
it seems redundant to use a secondary set of terms.