Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c11.60

c11.60

In the masculine *-iā* may have been the original form; but if so, it has in almost all instances been replaced in the text by *-inā*. In the feminine *-ī* is the prevailing form in the Rigveda, and *-iā* seems to be due to the influence of the masculine declension; the original form in *-ī* seems to have been altered in the text to *-yā* in several instances, to the injury of the rhythm. Nouns in *-vī* have regularly *-vyā*, as *pṛthivyā*.