Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c13.167

c13.167

(v) The use of the trochaic cadence cannot be restricted to any one period. It is systematic in the Vimada hymn x 20, belonging to a group which we have reason to think one of the earliest in the Rigveda: but the longest hymn in Trochaic Gāyatrī is viii 2, which belongs to a Kaṇva group and records the name of more than one member of the Kaṇva family: whilst in iii 16 we find trochaic cadence in a Bṛhatī hymn, the metre being characteristic of a Maṇḍala which contains few, if any, hymns earlier than the normal period.