Dear List,
I am looking for publications on the concept of "prose" in Sanskrit. Whereas definitions of "verse" are more or less common, if only by looking at examples of specific types of stanzas or verses, it seems that the concept of prose is more vague, generally
meaning "whatever is not organised in pādas". Of course, in poetic treatises the concept
gadya or cūrṇa is used, and genres like the campū presuppose the dichotomy verse-prose. But I would like to know if this is critically discussed elsewhere.
Apart from references to primary sources in Indian texts, I am also interested in definitions of Sanskrit (or Prakrit, or Tamil, etc.) prose in modern scholarly literature. My understanding is that a concept like "Sanskrit prose" is taken for granted and
we all are supposed to know what it means, so it is difficult to find definitions or sub-classifications of it. This seems to happen with Pali, and the moment we try to classify types of prose we are already discussing literary genres or types of texts (the
9 aṅgas), not types of prose per se, with the exception, perhaps, with the so-called metrical prose of the veḍha (varṇaka) portions.
I am also interested in the origins or verse and prose in general, in world literature.
Any help will be most appreciated.
With best wishes,
Aleix
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Aleix Ruiz-Falqués
Pali Lecturer & Head of the Department of Pali and Languages
Shan State Buddhist University
Phaya Phyu, Taunggyi, Myanmar 140101
(+95) 09428757648