Indigenization of Pali Meters in Thai Poetry
During the Ayutthaya period in Thailand (1350-1767), a group of meters based upon specific types and arrangements of syllables became a significant part of the Thai literary corpus. Known as chan in Thai literature, these meters, and the stanzas created from them, were adapted and transformed so that they corresponded in structure to other Thai verse forms. Although still used in compositions today, these meters reached their greatest popularity during the mid and late Ayutthaya period and...
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During the Ayutthaya period in Thailand (1350-1767), a group of meters based upon specific types and arrangements of syllables became a significant part of the Thai literary corpus. Known as chan in Thai literature, these meters, and the stanzas created from them, were adapted and transformed so that they corresponded in structure to other Thai verse forms. Although still used in compositions today, these meters reached their greatest popularity during the mid and late Ayutthaya period and the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. This study of the Thai chan meters contends that Thai linguistic constraints and poetic principles determined the transformation of the Pali meters and stanzas into their Thai counterparts. Disproving the frequent claims that the old chan compositions ignored the sequencing of the particular syllable types required by the meters, the author determines why the meters became popular only during certain eras and just what the aesthetic conditions were that nurtured the use of the meters.
PrefaceixChatper 1.Poetry in Thailand1Verse Types4Literary History15Chapter 2.The Aesthetics of Sound25Linguistic Techniques of phayr[characters not reproducible]?28Poetic Constraints34Chapter 3.The Transformation of the Pali Meters and Stanzas45The Influence of Pali45The Vuttodaya (Exposition of Meter)48The Syllable50Rhyme and the Stanza in Thai51The Transformation of the Pali Stanzas58The Stanzas Not Inscribed at Wat Chetuphon91Chapter 4.Poetic Conventions in the chan Meters97Phonological and Morphological Changes in the chan Meters98The Conventions in Context115Chapter 5.The New Thai chan Meters147The Meters of the Old Classics150The Meters of the Modern Classics156Chapter 6.Reaction to phayr[characters not reproducible]? and the Rejection of the chan Meters173AppendicesA.Phonemic Transcription179B.Examples in Thai181C.Examples in Pali205D.The Pali and Thai chan Meters209E.Thai chan Compositions Consulted223Bibliography227Index235
