Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c13.42

c13.42

The irregularities of the opening (◡ ◡ ◡) are substantially of the same type as the chief irregularity of the cadence ◡ ◡ ◡◡: but the latter occurs the more commonly. If language appropriate to the classical metres may be permitted, we should say that in each case a short syllable bears the *ictus*. But in detail there is a remarkable difference. In the opening the short second syllable which bears the *ictus* is very often one which contains a final vowel: in the cadence the short sixth syllable is almost always an initial syllable.