Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c13.118

c13.118

Of the irregularities in the full cadence of mixed Anuṣṭubh verse in the popular Rigveda a large proportion are found in the Mahāpaṅkti stanzas i 191 10-12. These verses, though rudely dimeter, are not in accordance with any known Vedic metre. Trochaic endings are common, both in semi-cadence and cadence, and the last verse of each stanza, as it stands in the text, begins with the unaccented word tuā. Further the stanza that follows (13) is so irregular that it cannot be brought under any scheme. If these stanzas are left out of account, we find much the same regularity in the cadence of mixed Anuṣṭubh and of pure Anuṣṭubh hymns.