such as a foreign word or a proper name”. But since the extent to which sandhi obscures the meaning varies with the capacity of the reader “the degree, to which sandhi should be dispensed with must vary with the class of readers for whom any book is intended”. But since the capacity of readers of ordinary prose varies infinitely, there can be no standard of (i.e., omission of sandhi). If like the Pandits conference Mr. J. Ramayya Pantulu had contended himself with drawing a distinction between works intended for children and books intended for grown up persons, two systems of sandhi would have sufficed.
135. Mr. J. Ramayya Pantulu does not rely upon traditional authority for omission of sandhi. He conjectures the rationale of that authority and finds reasons for deviation in the conditions of prose. He believes that Telugu stanzas (except sisa which is long) are usually read as single breath-groups, which obviated the necessity for omission of sandhi in the middle of a sentence. “These considerations do not apply to prose”.
136. The man must yet be born who will read a stanza as a single breath-group. Good readers always make pauses in the middle of a verse sentence iffespective of sandhi. The metrical pause is an integral part of Sanskrit versification. Telugu poets neglected the pause restriction when adopting Sanskrit metres, but good poets positioned pauses in their verses with great rhythmic effect.
137. If it were first proved that the poetic dialect was a suitable instrument for a modern prose, it would be hardly necessary to twist tradition into an acquiescence of breach of Sandhi. When deviation from tradition is so far allowed as to utilize an archaic and artificial poetic dialect for purposes of modern prose, no justification in tradition need be sought to break the laws of sandhi in prose, provided of course that the breach of laws followed some definite and rational principles.
