Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c10.107

c10.107

The history can be pursued in more detail by considering the number of occurrences of each kind in relation to the bulk of the groups: except that Group V contains so little trimeter verse, and Groups IV, VIII, and IX so little dimeter verse that no comparisons can usefully be made in these particulars. It then appears that hiatus is far more common in Groups I—III than elsewhere. In Groups IV and V hiatus is only half as common as before, but combination is unaltered. In Group IX irregular hiatus hardly exists; in 3000 trimeter verses there are only 20 examples, and of these 13 are at the caesura: combination of all kinds has greatly increased. In the popular Rigveda some reaction is to be noticed: hiatus is more common, and combination of sá, of duals, and with iva is rarer; but combination of final -i, -ī, -u, -ū, -ah, -e is much more common than in Group IX, and a close approximation to the standard of classical Sanskrit is reached.