Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c10.75

c10.75

127. According to the rules of classical Sanskrit, final *-aḥ* becomes *-o*, and final *-e* is unaltered, if the next word begins with *a-*, but the initial *a-* is lost. This result is comparatively rare in the Rigveda proper, but is occasionally found in all parts of it: in the popular Rigveda it is considerably more common. As many of the instances are found at the caesura, it seems that the loss of the initial vowel was not regarded by the poets as equivalent to combination of the syllables.