Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c13.46

c13.46

If we consider that irregularities of both kinds are most common in the earliest parts of the Rigveda, it becomes probable that their later use was largely due to reminiscence, not indeed of the older practice as such, but of individual instances of it: and this may account for the apparently arbitrary difference between the two irregularities. At the same time a reciter would be tempted to give an artificial intonation to words so occurring, and this is probably represented in the text by the long vowel or form in -o for which in many cases we have seen reason to restore a final short vowel (§§ 167 iii, 171 iv, etc.).