Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c14.325

c14.325

225. The syllabic variations which affect one part of the verse only have already been discussed: but the ‘rests’ and ‘hybrid verses’ need to be considered separately, as they involve difficulties as to the position of the caesura and therefore affect the general structure of the verse. We have taken as our starting-point (§ 94 iii) the view that the ‘rests’ generally are characteristic of an early period of the Rigveda: and this view is borne out by the fact that they are comparatively rare in the popular Rigveda. A closer examination however shews that the rests fall into three classes, partly according to the rhythm of the verses in which they occur, and partly according to their use in the Rigveda, namely (i) verses in which a rest is associated with iambic rhythm of the break, the rest being at the fifth place, and the sixth syllable being long; these verses are chiefly found in the decasyllabic Triṣṭubh hymns, and are of the Virāṭsthānā or some similar type: (ii) verses agreeing on the whole with the normal trimeter rhythm, but chiefly found in decasyllabic metres, the types being the Pentad and the Bhārgavī verse: and (iii) verses entirely agreeing with the ordinary trimeter rhythm, but having the first part of the verse defective by one syllable. Verses of the last class may be said to contain ‘neutral’ rests, on account of their lack of distinctive character: they are found most frequently in the hymns in decasyllabic Triṣṭubh, but to a certain extent are spread over the whole Rigveda.