Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c12.s2.8

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.