Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c5.12

c5.12

10. Western critics are far from unanimous in their views as to the historical relation of the different parts of the Rigveda. Still there is a very general agreement upon two points : (i) that the division of the Rigveda into maṇḍalas is, in part at least, based upon historical grounds, the different maṇḍalas (or their parts) being relatively homogeneous; and (ii) that certain hymns appearing at the end of each of the first nine maṇḍalas, or of sections of these, and others constituting a large part of the tenth maṇḍala, are homogeneous in character with the Atharvaveda, and constitute later additions to the original Rigveda collection, or “Rigveda proper.”