Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c5.8

c5.8

6. Western critics of Vedic metre, in dealing with isolated questions, fall into two schools, according as they are directly guided by textual or metrical principles. Some, having regard to the great antiquity and authority of the Saṃhitā text, feel alarmed at any proposal to tamper with it: and incline in all cases of doubt to maintain the text, and to admit a metrical irregularity. Others, again, recognizing the general skilfulness of the Vedic bards, propose in the same cases textual restoration. If the inclination of the one school were carried to an extreme, the ‘theory of Vedic metre’ would be merely a summary of the facts presented by the existing text, with the possible exception of such modifications as native authorities regard as permissible: if on the other hand a free field is left for the ingenuity of the second school, strict canons of metre will be laid down, and criticism will occupy itself with suggesting alterations of the text wherever it does not conform to them.