Scansion under dispute: a wrong key, a conjunct and a pāda-end
Class 12 annual examination, chandas question: 8 marks for scanning four pādas of a prescribed verse and naming the metre. Forty-four scripts. The printed key says indravajrā. On re-checking you find that pādas 1 and 3 open with ta-gaṇa, pāda 2 opens with na-gaṇa (three light syllables), and all four pādas have eleven syllables. In pāda 3 the eighth syllable is a short vowel written at the end of a word, but the next word inside the same pāda begins with the conjunct ṣṭ; 26 students counted that syllable as light and then forced the gaṇa pattern to fit. In pāda 2 the last syllable is short but stands at the end of the pāda; 9 students deducted marks from themselves there and named a metre that is not in the syllabus. The textbook index lists the verse simply as upajāti. One examiner insists the printed key cannot be changed after the paper has gone out.
1. Determine the metre and decide what the key should say, with the mark consequences for the scripts.
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Scan by gaṇa, never by impression. Pādas 1 and 3 give ta-ta-ja-ga-ga, which is indravajrā. Pāda 2 gives na-ta-ja-ga-ga, which is upendravajrā. A verse that mixes indravajrā and upendravajrā pādas is upajāti, which is exactly what the textbook index says. The printed key is therefore right for two pādas and wrong as a name for the whole verse.
Marking: full marks to upajāti. A script that names the pādas separately (indravajrā in 1 and 3, upendravajrā in 2) also earns full marks and a marginal note, since it shows the mixture that produces upajāti. A script that writes indravajrā flatly for all four pādas loses the marks attached to pādas 2 and 4, because the name does not follow from its own scansion. The key is to be reissued as upajāti with the pāda-wise gaṇa strings printed beside it, so the next setter cannot repeat the error.
2. Explain the two counting errors: the conjunct ṣṭ inside pāda 3, and the short final syllable of pāda 2.
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(i) A short vowel followed by a conjunct is heavy (saṃyoge guru). The rule is phonetic, so word boundaries inside the pāda are irrelevant: the eighth syllable of pāda 3 is short in itself but stands before ṣṭ, and is therefore heavy. That is precisely what ja-gaṇa requires in its middle position (light–heavy–light). The 26 scripts counted it light, broke the pattern, and then adjusted the metre to fit; their scansion mark falls even where the final name happens to be right, because the mark is for the derivation and not for a lucky guess.
(ii) A pāda-final syllable counts as heavy (pādānta), so the short final of pāda 2 closes ga-gaṇa and needs no repair. The 9 students who lightened it and then invented a metre applied the rule in the wrong direction. Teach the two rules together: weight depends on the vowel itself plus what follows it, and the end of a pāda is always heavy. A short vowel at pāda-end is light in itself and heavy by position, and position governs.
3. The other examiner says a printed key cannot be changed. Set out the procedure you will follow and justify it.
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A printed key is not a statute. When a key is demonstrably wrong, moderation must correct it and re-mark, because otherwise the students who reasoned correctly are penalised for the setter's error, which is the opposite of what the marks measure.
Procedure: scan the disputed pāda on the board in front of both examiners and write the gaṇa string into the moderation sheet; enter upajāti as the key with indravajrā and upendravajrā noted pāda-wise; re-mark only the affected item for all 44 scripts against the corrected scheme; do not penalise a script that gives upajāti for the whole verse or names the pādas separately; record the change and the reason, and attach it to next year's key so the same verse is not mis-keyed again.
Justification in one line for the file: the question asks for a scansion, and a scansion that cannot be reproduced from the printed syllables is not an answer, whoever printed it. Also tell the students that the gaṇa string must be shown, since the mark is for the derivation and not for the label alone.