as the author of the Srutabodha, all vary; noticing some metres and passing over others. Blutnana, Appa Cavi, the Sulacshan'a Saram, and other works on Telugu prosody, are yet more dissimilar. From a total of about two hundred possible metres given in these authors, I have therefore selected such as are said to be in use; though the teachers that acknowledge them cannot always prove their occurrence.
47. The number of metres has been very unnecessarily extended: it has been shewn that several vary from each other only in one syllable; but the criticks give every variety a separate name: these various denominations are no assistance, but a mere hindrance to the learner: thus in the various species of the Arya and Vaitaliya metres, the numerous denominations used are really an obstacle: such difficulties it is the particular object of the present work to remove.
In some rare instances the poefs vary from each other: thus in the Prithivi metre, the writer of the Vishnu Purana (book I, verse 225) places the caesura, and rhyme, at the ninth syllable; while in the Maha Bharata (part I, book 2, verse 169) we find Nannaya Bhatt places it on the twelfth.
Besides, some metres are merely the double of others: thus the Iudra vajra is merely the Hari metre doubled.
