The Sanskrit Text of Buddha-carita Aśvaghoṣa - buddhanet-de-index

Introduction to the Text - 6These three are Addhasamavutta metres, having 2 dissimilar pairs of lines(pādayuga) to the verse (105 verses, 10%): Aupacchandasaka (mātrā 16 + 18) Puṣpitāgrā = (16 + 18) Aparavaktra = (14 + 16)and there is also the Śloka metre (accounting for 297 verses, 30%), which by thisstage in its develoment, doesn’t easily fit into any of the categories of ClassicalIndian prosody. 1The main metres are described employed in Buddhacarita are described first, andthen the Classical metres that are used to conclude the various chapters.1. Upajāti (475 verses)The Upajāti lines found in Buddhacarita are far in excess of any other metre, andAśvaghoṣa’s handling of the metre is faultless. The basic scheme of the Upajāti inAśvaghoṣa’s prosody may be described as having 2 lines showing the followingstructure:⏓−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏓¦¦⏓−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−×This gives two basic lines of either −−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏓, known as Indravajrā, or⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏓, known as Upendravajrā. In the text that is printed here thereare 1285 Indravajrā lines; and 615 Upendravajrā, which therefore shows a markedpreference for the former scheme.These two different lines can occur in any position and any order in the twopādayuga-s that make up a verse. There are therefore 16 different species ofUpajāti verse, which have all been given individual names in the Classicalprosodies. 2 It is of some interest to see how the lines are distributed here.1 The prosodic texts themselves differ one from the other in their classification of the metre.It seems best therefore to treat it as being in a class of its own.2 I have included these names in the analysis.