On 12/28/08, Ong Yong Peng <palismith@...> wrote, quting
Durosille: >626. Prosody is that part of Grammar which treats of the
laws of

> versification.
>
> * A gaathaa in Paali poetry, is a stanza.
> * A paada is the fourth part of a stanza, called also a quarter verse.
> * A va.n.na is a syllable in a paada.
> * A short syllable is termed lahu.
> * A long syllable is called garu.
> * A foot is termed ga.na.

It seems to me these definitions are confusing. A paada is a fourth of
a 4 lined verse, that is correct. So it means what we now understand
to be a 'line'. Its literal meaning is 'foot', On the analogy of a
four-footed animal, a line of a normal gaathaa came to be called a
'paada'. Now, to define a 'ga.na' also as a 'foot' is confusing. A
ga.na as I understand is a unit of 3 syllables. A ga.na may have 3
short syllables, 3 long syllables, 2 short and 1 long or any other
such combination; but essentially it is a unit of 3 syllables.
Maybe Warder's book on metrics explains it better.

> <YP> Terminology: lahu = short syllable, garu = long syllable.

OK

>ga.na =
> foot. A foot is made up of two or more syllables.

This is what has to be clarified. I have given above my understanding
of it. It has to be 3 syllables, neither less, nor more.

> <YP> paada = last quarter portion
> of a stanza

Not a last quarter, but a quarter of a gaathaa of 4 lines. Generaly
it means a 'line' in the modern sense.

> va.n.na = a syllable in a paada.

Again, this needs clarifiaction. Just a syllable is better.

Garu means heavy and lahu means light. In prosody they mean long and
short. ga is shorthand for garu and la is short for lahu, as you later
say. A long syllable has a long vowel or a short vowel followed by a
double consonant.

>. A foot containing two long syllables is termed gaa, that is,
> ga+ga, the initial syllable ga of the word garu being used to
> represent a long syllable. A foot of two short syllables is termed
> laa, that is la+la, the initial syllable of the word lahu being
> employed to represent a short syllable.

This is confusing. A foot,i.e., a line of a verse, is unlikely to
have just two syllables.

If these points are overlooked, the whole discussion may go astray.
Let's try to have them correct. I may be wrong in some places, I don't
know.

Best wishes.
Mahinda