Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c14.65

c14.65

(i) The rule given in § 45, that the caesura should be followed by two short syllables, holds good for about two-thirds of all the trimeter verses in the Rigveda, but is largely qualified by the particulars now given. Thus after an early caesura the cretic form || - ◡ - is much more common than the form || ◡ ◡ ◡, and must be considered as a more regular form: and the form || - ◡ ◡ seems also to rank as regular in the cretic and popular periods. In other particulars also the classification of the forms does not apply with equal force to all periods; for instance, the iambic forms (except ◡ || - ◡) are really irregular after the strophic period.