Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c5.5

c5.5

4. For this undertaking the material at our disposal is on the whole abundant. We have besides at our service native theories of metre, worked out by the authors of the Prātiśākhyas and the Anukramaṇīs: but we have no longer need of them, because the study of the text of the Rigveda enables us to ascertain for ourselves the principles which guided the Vedic bards¹: and in regard to details, the native authorities appear to be no better informed than ourselves. We have the advantage of them in that we start free from the prejudices naturally engendered in India by the linguistic and metrical practice of the commentators’ own times, and because we have a wider knowledge of the general history of language. On the other hand, we stand in danger of importing into our subject other prejudices, derived from too hasty comparisons with classical or modern verse, or from the instinctive desire to find short and simple solutions of the problems that arise in a great field of literature in which the workers are so few and the desire of completed knowledge is so keen.