Author: Anvndoram Borooah
Publisher: Bharatiya Kala Prakashan
Year: 2001
Language: multilingual
Pages: 372
ISBN/UPC (if available): 81-86050-56-6
Description
Prosody is at once the simplest and the most important branch of Sanskrit Grammar. Its rule do not depend on authority. Any one with a good ear accustomed to read Sanskrit is able to detect what is poetry, what is not poetry, and where there is break of poetry, in whatever garb it may be presented. Our manuscripts utterly ignore the convenience of readers by disregarding the rules of punctuation and divisions of poetry, often mixing it with prose and the printed works, although comparatively easier and more reliable, are generally not altogether free from most puzzling mistakes. A practical acquaintance with Prosody not only enables us to successfully grapple with the former difficulties, but also in the case of classical texts, often to detect all ordinary faults of omission, insertion, and alteration.
Our works on Vedic prosody appear, therefore, to be defective not only in not teaching all they ought to teach but also in teaching much that are purely theoretical and practically mischievous. In classical prosody, there is not much debatable ground. But here also, our writers do not discuss questions from practical stand-points. This volume is intended to remove these defects and present Vedic and classical prosody in what appears to me the clearest and easiest way. For practical purposes, it is not necessary to get by heart the minute divisions of Sanskrit classification. It is sufficient to know the ordinary meters so as to be able to read common verses with ease and proper observance of pauses.