Hello all,
The use of second syllable rhyme [that the Kannada grammar kavirAjamarga calls Adi-prAsa, and anomalously referred to as dvitIyAkSara-prAsa in later texts ] is indeed a feature particular to South India.
Another compulsory feature of SI poetry [classical poetry in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu for sure, I don't know enough about Malayalam classical poetry] is the marking of the yati caesura by a feature called akSara-maitri, wherein the first letter of the line and the letter after the caesura are same, or similar.
This feature of poetry seems to have eventually percolated into recitative/performative forms that were half-way between poems and songs, as well as into genres that were entirely song like.
However it would be useful if someone can point to a treatise that prescribes such features for the song-like genres. the kavi-rAja-marga does set the rules down for verse in Kannada in certain terms. I am inclined to believe that there must be separate if related rules for the composition of poetry and song, even if the genres are somewhat related.
The songs of muttuswAmi dIkSita [18th Century] that Indira Peterson
discusses, are coming as part of a long tradition of kIrtana song
genres that have followed the prAsa rule with various degrees of rigour,
from the 15th century onwards. dIkSita indeed follows the practise of
Adi-prAsa and yati religiously.
dIkSita's contemporary
SwAti tirunAl, a literary-minded ruler of Travancore put together a
manual with rules for musical compositions titled
muhanaprAsa-antaprAsa-vyavasthA.
The example given from the BhAgavata - the gopika gItam [jayati te'dhikam etc..] is not really an akSara-vRtta. Neither is Jayadeva's magnum opus. Nor are the Apabhramsa gItis that Prof Tieken refers to, or the songs of muttuswAmi dikSita.
I have been collecting examples of (Sanskrit) verses that demonstrate such Southern features as Adi-prAsa and/or aksara-maitri for yati. As was pointed out in the essay by Shulman and Bronner, such examples abound in the Sanskrit poetry of South Indian Sanskrit poets; who had significant exposure to non-Sanskrit classical literature.