（ga^tha^） （1） A verse praising the merit of the Buddha. The poetry of the sutras， as contrasted to narrative: 长行）. （2） In his commentary to the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment （圆觉经）， Zongmi describes four types of ga^tha^: （a） 阿耨 都婆颂 which does not ask questions about the prior prose and which is composed of verses of 32 ideographs; （b） qietuosong 伽陀颂 which is also called fengsong 讽颂 and zhisong 直颂 and which explains the dharma in verse without necessarily explaining the prior prose text; （c） qiyesong 祇夜颂which is also called yingsong 应颂 and （d） jishisong 集施颂 which indicates that much meaning is contained in few words （Z vol. 9， 351c）. One of the twelve traditional genre divisions of the Buddhist canon 十二部经.