An Outline of the Metres in the Pāḷi Canon

An Outline of the Metres in the Pāḷi Canon - 36
2.19 Hypermetres, Veḍha & Gubbinī
Only two examples of gaṇacchandas hypermetre have been found in
the Canon so far, they are Veḍha and Gubbinī. The structure of both
is similar and can be defined as follows:
Opening:
Middle:
End: ×
The middle gaṇas can be repeated a flexible number of times. The
end normally finishes with a full gaṇa as described above but may
finish with a half gaṇa ⏓ . Note that in these metres the pattern
⏑−⏑ is supposed to occur only in the odd gaṇas (in contradistinction
to the Ariyā class of metres).
The Veḍha metre is normally composed of descriptive compounds
(vaṇṇakas) of varying length. The only examples discovered so far
are in the Kuṇāla-jātaka Ja 536. Sometimes there are only four gaṇas
in the compound, then the structure looks like this:
but the text of these compounds now is very corrupt, and they
sometimes have only three gaṇas (lacking the first).
As the example here is a 6 gaṇa compound:
−−¦⏑⏑−¦⏑⏑⏑⏑¦−⏑⏑¦⏑−⏑¦−−
Vijjādharasiddhasamaṇatāpasagaṇādhivutthe
Gubbinī has the same structure, but need not consist solely of
compounds. The only known example is the frequently repeated
praise of the Three Treasures beginning "Iti pi so...":