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Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c12.s2: Group II

Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c12.s2

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Group II

c12.s2.1

(v) The paroxytone adverbs in *-tra* occur in the positions of protraction 38 times, being in the proportion of 140 in every 1000: but this is largely accounted for by the grammatical function. The instances are: 8, iii 53 5b, *vii 103 2d, viii 15 12c: 2T, i 115 2c, *163 4d, *164 3d¹ *21a *33d, iii 23 1d, 53 5c 6c, iv 26 7c, v 41 17c, 44 9c 9d, *vi 75 8c *11c, vii 1 4c, 83 2a 2c 2d, viii 20 6c, x 8 6b, *18 13d, *28 8d, 42 4c, *53 8c, *71 2c, *88 17a, 138 1c, *149 2a: 2D, i 22 4b, v 61 14b, vi 16 17a¹ 17c, viii 34 3a, ix 111 2e, *x 72 7c.

c12.s2.2

¹ The text has *-tra*.

c12.s2.3

(vi) The pronominal instrumentals *yéna*, *kéna*, *téna* occur in positions of protraction 37 times, being in the proportion of 200 in every 1000, largely accounted for as in the last section. The instances are: 2T, i 117 2d¹, 165 2d¹, 183 3c¹, 186 5c¹, ii 17 6c, 24 10d¹, iii 60 2c¹, iv 36 9c¹, 43 6d¹, 51 4c, v 54 15b, 87 5c, vi 49 5c¹, vii 1 24c¹, 21 6c, 41 5b¹, *101 3d¹, viii 3 9c 10a, ix 108 4a, x *10 8d¹, *52 1d¹, *102 9c¹, *114 7d¹, *121 5b¹: 2D, i 42 5c¹, 50 6a, vi 16 48c, *vii 55 7c, viii 12 2a 2c, 17 10b, 19 20b, 20 26b, 67 6c, ix 61 19b, x 126 2c. *yéna nú* may be restored in i 72 8d, viii 12 4c.

c12.s2.4

¹ The text has *-ena*.

c12.s2.5

(vii) Protraction in the prior elements of compounds and derivatives is not always readily recognized, as many of the words are of comparatively rare occurrence. The instances, according to the discussion in §§ 165-169 below, are as follows, including a few instances in the positions 6, 8, and 10: 6, v 9 7a², ix 101 3a²: 8, i 48 2a¹⁸ 12c³: 10, viii 60 13c⁵ 14a⁵: 2t, i 31 7c⁶, 48 2a³, 72 2c⁷, 83 1a³, 117 9d⁸, 118 9b⁵, 121 12d⁹, 122 7c¹ 8d³, 123 12a³, 140 13a², ii 32 2d¹⁰, iii 51 2c¹¹, iv 42 9d⁹, v 8 7b¹⁰, 30 1b¹², 36 6d¹, 58 6b¹⁴, vi 1 7b¹⁰, 17 11d⁹, vii 41 7a³, 71 3b¹⁰, 72 1b³, 100 2d³, viii 20 2a¹⁴, ix 74 5b¹⁵, 97 26a¹⁵ 49c² 51a², 104 2c¹⁵, 110 11c¹¹, x *15 9a⁶, 36 8b¹⁵, 40 5d³, 48 7b², 76 4d¹⁵, 78 1b¹⁵, 91 15c¹¹, *101 1d⁴, *109 1c¹⁴, 160 1b¹³: 2d, ii 41 10b², iv 31 4a², v 35 5c¹³, 61 13b¹⁷, vi 16 14c⁹, vii 32 24a², viii 38 2b⁹, ix 100 1a², *x 97 7a³.

c12.s2.6

¹ śrutáratha, § 166 vii. [^2]: abhí, § 167 iii. [^3]: áśvavant, § 168 ii. [^4]: índravant, ib. [^5]: práti, § 167 v. [^6]: tatrṣāṇá, § 169 iii. [^7]: śramayú, § 168 iii. [^8]: ahíhán, § 166 vii. [^9]: vṛtrahán, ib. [^10]: sumnayát, sumnayú, § 168 iii. [^11]: vājasáni, § 166 vii. [^12]: sukháratha, ib. [^13]: sarvarathá, ib. [^14]: vilú-, § 166 iv. [^15]: devaví, § 166 vii. [^16]: devávant, § 168 ii. [^17]: tveṣáratha, § 166 vii. [^18]: sú-, § 167 v.

c12.s2.7

164. The conclusions reached in the preceding sections are generally confirmed by a close examination of the statistics of the use of words and forms of the different groups. Thus the use of the forms included in § 158 differs only slightly from that of ordinary long final vowels: the forms included in § 159 appear much more frequently, but still only occasionally, in the positions which favour short quantity. The adverbs named in §§ 160, 161 are found in all positions, but several shew a preference for those that favour short quantity. All the remaining forms in their general use agree with those that have short final vowels: yet there remains a substantial difference, which indicates that ‘protraction’ is not a mere theory of an editor, but corresponds to some special characteristic of the forms concerned.

c12.s2.8

The table that follows hardly needs explanation so far as the first three groups are concerned. In the two the occurrences in group A are far more numerous than those in group E, and similarly those in B than those in D; also the quantity of a following third syllable is indifferent, and the position before an early caesura twice as common as before a late caesura. In the group of adverbs (§§ 160, 161) all these signs disappear. In all the ‘forms capable of protraction’ (§ 163) we observe that the long third syllable and the position before a late caesura are greatly favoured, and so far short vowels are indicated. Yet the longer words appear ten times as often in group A as ordinary short vowels, although they can (as a rule) only appear in the eighth place (§ 163). The treatment of such forms as yátra, yéna comes out most clearly when they are compared with other words like ápa, utá, yásya (with kásya and tásya) which have much the same form and grammatical function. Even when we include amongst the latter the forms that appear as ápo, utó in the text (see § 171 iv), a marked difference remains in the distribution between the groups, and indicates that the ‘vowels capable of protraction’ were also not considered very suitable for the positions of short quantity.

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