Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c13.166

c13.166

(iv) Gāyatrī on the whole appears to be later than Anuṣṭubh and the lyric metres. This is first suggested by the form of the stanza : for the whole balance of the Indo-European structure of metre is based upon duality, and the stanza of three verses seems to be a reduction from the normal stanza of four. But although the trimeter stanza of three verses hardly belongs to the earliest part of the Rigveda, several of the uneven and other lyric metres have a stanza of three verses, and it is impossible to doubt the antiquity of Gāyatrī metre as used in a hymn like viii 46, in combination with lyric metres. We have also found that some groups of the Gāyatrī hymns, for instance Nos. 9 and 13 above (table, § 195), shew in the opening the same general character as the lyric hymns. But whilst the archaic and strophic periods furnished their proportion of Gāyatrī verse, the great mass of Gāyatrī hymns in the Rigveda is distinguished by characteristics which suggest a later date, and at the same time furnish a transition to the metres of the popular Rigveda. These characteristics are the growth of the syncopated opening, the increased regularity of the cadence, and the differentiation of the verses according to their position in the stanza.