Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c12.s3.148

c12.s3.148

176. In spite of numerous errors in detail, it remains the fact that the Saṃhitā text on the whole gives a true picture of the quantities even of the variant final vowels. Further, the bias it shews is readily explained by the examination of its usage in each class of words. For the long final vowels enumerated in § 158 the text only occasionally gives short quantity, and that chiefly at the end of the verse or distich, or before consonant-groups. In the case of the verbal endings in *-ā*, *-thā*, *-tā*, for which the poets preferred the long values, the text prefers the short values, which were no doubt established in the later period: and the short values are therefore introduced wherever the metre is favourable or indifferent. Similarly for *u*, *tú*, *nú* and *sú* the text prefers the short values except in certain phrases. In the case of adyá and ádha the text appears to be in general agreement with the metre. In the words that are usually short the text only introduces the long vowel in the ‘positions of protraction,’ and there very irregularly.