छन्दस्-ఛందస్సు -Prosody- Lesson-1

     छन्दस्-ఛందస్సు -Prosody- Lesson-1

I.                   The place of the science of Prosody:  Prosody is one among the six parts of the Veda - Purusha : The tradition goes like this. Chandas is the feet of Vedapurusha. Kalpa is like his hands, Jyothisha is the eyes, Nirukta is the ear, Siksha is the nose and Vyakarana is the mouth.

छन्द: पादौ तु वेदस्य हस्तौ कल्पो s पठ्यते

ज्योतिषामयनं चक्षुर्निरुक्तं श्रोत्रमुच्यते

शिक्षा घ्राणं तु वेदस्य मुखं व्याकरणं स्मृतम् .

II. The tradition of the science of Prosody

The science of Prosody has a very great tradition. शिव: taught this science to   षण्मुख,  Shanmukha taught it to  सनत्कुमार: a great saint , Sanatkumara imparted it to   बृहस्पति: the teacher of Devas  and Brihaspati taught it to   इन्द्र: and from Inrda it went to  फणिपति: Aadisesha and from Adisesha  पिङ्गलनाग: received and imparted  it to their disciples and through them it is propagated in the entire world.

छन्दो ज्ञानमिदं पुरा त्रिनयनाल्लेभे गुहो sनादित:

तस्मात्प्राप सनत्कुमारकमुनि:तस्मात्सुराणां गुरु :

तस्माद्देवपति: तत: फणिपति : तस्माच्च तत्पिङ्ग

स्तच्छिष्यैर्बहुभिर्महात्मभिरथो मह्यां प्रतिष्ठापितम्  .

The science of Prosody is like an ocean. It is mainly divided in to two parts, Vedic and classical. In classical prosody there are two types of vrittas, sama and Asama. A small sketch of Samavrittas is given under.

III. The total number of samavrittas is 13, 42, 17, 726.

Vrittas are of two kinds .sama vritta and Vishama vrittas.  The samavrittas are divided in many groups basing upon the number of letters they possess. They are from 1 to 26 letters. Each group produces hundreds, thousands and even millions of meters from them.

The total number of SamaVrittas is  13, 42, 17, 726.

The list is given under. They are formed from single letter to 26 letters.

Name of the chandas. ------------------------No of Meters formed

1. उक्त . ukta -------------------------------------------2meters

2.  अत्युक्त Atyukta -------------------------------------–4

3. मध्य Madhya------------------------------------—8

4. प्रतिष्ठा PratishTha -------------------------------– 16

5.सुप्रतिष्ठ  SupratishTha--------------------------------32

6. गायत्री Gayatri--------------------------------------  64

7. उष्णिक् Ushnik --------------------------------------128.

8. अनुष्टुप् AnushTup ----------------------------------256

9.बृहती Brihati -----------------------------------------512

10.पङ्क्तिं Pankti --------------------------------------1024

11. त्रिष्टुप्  TrishTup ---------------2048

   12. जगती Jagathi -----------------4096

13.अतिजगती Atijagathi ---------------8192

14. शक्वरी shakvari ----------------16384

15. अतिशक्वरी Atishakvari ------------32,768

16. अष्टि Ashti----------------------65,536

17. अत्यष्ति Atyashti------------------1, 31, 07 2

18. धृति Dhruti--------------------2,62, 144

19. अतिधृति Atidhruti-----------------5, 24, 288 

20. कृति Kriti --------------------1048576

21.प्रकृति Prakriti ------2, 09, 7, 152

22. आकृति Aakriti-------4, 19, 4, 304

23. विकृति Vikriti-------83, 88, 608

24. संकृति SaMkriti ------1, 67, 77, 216

25. अभिकृति Abhikriti ------3, 35, 54, 432

26. उत्कृति Utkriti ---------6, 71, 08, 864.

Total:---13, 42, 17, 726.

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