Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c5.s2: (iii) The Rearrangement of the Rigveda
Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c5.s2
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(iii) The Rearrangement of the Rigveda
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57. In the Saṃhitā text the hymns of the Rigveda are arranged in three principal groups, of which the largest extends from i 51 to the end of vii, and consists of fourteen collections of hymns arranged in the ascending order of the number of hymns contained in each: the hymns to Agni coming first, then those to Indra, in each collection. These are usually termed the *family collections*, each being ascribed by tradition to a particular family of bards.
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From i 1 to 50, and in viii we have another series of family collections, in which the arrangement is less regular, and the Agni hymns do not necessarily stand first. These collections are on the average much shorter than the series first mentioned.
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The ninth maṇḍala contains only hymns addressed to *Soma Pavamāna*. It has been thought, not without reason, that this book marks the beginning of an attempted new recension of the Rigveda, in which the whole body of hymns was intended to be arranged according to the deities addressed. It is fortunate for historical investigation that this attempt was carried no further.
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In the tenth maṇḍala we find a series of collections arranged in the descending order of the number of hymns in each, and extending from x 1 to x 84. From x 85 to 191 we find single hymns arranged in the descending order of the number of stanzas contained in each.
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58. It is clear that the arrangement of the collections as wholes is of little or no importance to us, being based almost entirely upon mechanical considerations. Within each collection also the arrangement is generally mechanical, and therefore without value. There remains the possibility that the hymns in each collection may nevertheless be on the whole homogeneous: and this supposition is very generally confirmed by an examination of the contents of the separate collections.
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59. The most striking features which suggest that a collection is homogeneous are the following:
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(i) the use of the family name of the authors in the separate hymns;
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(ii) the use of a special refrain verse; and
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(iii) the use of metres or rhythms peculiar to the collection.
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Some or all of these indications combine to confirm the ascription of the hymns of Maṇḍala vii to the Vasiṣṭha family, or (as we may shortly express it) to Vasiṣṭha: and that of the hymns of Maṇḍala vi to Bharadvāja. In the same way we find reason to ascribe the collections i 36—43, 44—50, viii 1—5, 6—11, 32—34 and 49—59 to Kaṇva, i 165—191 to Māna, i 58—64 and 74—93 to Gotama, viii 19—22 to Sobhari, 23—26 to Vyaśva, 35—38 to Śyāvāśva, and x 20—26 to Vimada. All these collections are marked by the fact that their metrical forms are not only different from those which prevail in later literature, but also almost peculiar to each family.
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There seems a presumption that all these collections belong to a period of originality and rivalry between the bardic families, which we may provisionally name the bardic period.
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To this period we should also be inclined on metrical grounds to assign the collection i 127—139, perhaps to be connected with the name of Divodāsa; and the hymns ix 98—111, each of which corresponds to some one of the collections in this class. The collections i 140—164, ii, and v each contain a nucleus of hymns of similar metrical distinctiveness, which may be ascribed to Dīrghatamas, Gṛtsamada, and Atri respectively: but very many of the hymns in these collections are of a more normal character.
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The composition of the hymns of this group may easily be supposed to have extended over a long period of time, and in each family over several generations.
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60. In other collections we find that two metres are almost exclusively employed, namely, Triṣṭubh and Gāyatrī, and that in these there is great regularity both of external and internal form. Such collections are i 1—11, 12—23, 24—30, iii, iv, and ix 1—97. Refrain verses and authors' names are very rare in these collections, the name of Kuśika being on the whole the most prominent: and in the metre there is little to differentiate one collection from another. It is natural to refer all these hymns to the same general period, and to conceive it as one in which perfection rather than originality of form was the aim. Such a period would seem to be necessarily later than that last described, and we name it provisionally the normal period.
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⁶¹ The groups i 31—35, 94—115, and those which extend from x 33 to x 84 employ almost exclusively Triṣṭubh and Jagatī
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metre, and include a large proportion of hymns in which cretic rhythm is favoured. Authors’ names are again wanting, though refrain verses sometimes occur. The linguistic forms which characterize the Atharvaveda begin to appear with some frequency. Although these groups form a comparatively small part of the Rigveda, they seem to have a character of their own, and to belong to a period of transition which may be provisionally named the cretic period, with reference to the distinctive rhythm often found in these hymns.
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62. Last in order, but of well-recognized importance, is that part of the Rigveda which resembles in form and character the Atharvaveda. Its metrical characteristics are the ‘epic’ Anuṣṭubh and ‘contaminated’ Triṣṭubh. In many of the hymns, however, these variations are only occasional, and some hymns, though seldom such as contain more than four or five stanzas, shew the normal forms of the Anuṣṭubh and Triṣṭubh, and of other metres characteristic of the Rigveda as a whole. The only considerable group of hymns of this type recognized by the Saṃhitā text is that of the funeral hymns, x 14—19. Other hymns appear at the end of the respective Maṇḍalas, or of those sections which comprise the Agni or Indra hymns, or are appended to single hymns with which they are not homogeneous; whilst a very large proportion are included in the tenth Maṇḍala. These hymns, as we have already noticed (§ 10), are usually ascribed to a later period than the rest of the Rigveda, although there is good reason to think them earlier in date than the existing recension of the Atharvaveda. It does not, however, seem well to call them here by the name ‘late Rigveda,’ by which we should be pledging ourselves to conclusions that are merely provisional. The name popular Rigveda has recently been given to these hymns, partly on account of their subject-matter, which includes myths, dramatic colloquies, and charms, and may therefore be supposed to appeal chiefly to the common people : and partly because of the relatively modern form of language, which at the time must certainly have had a ‘popular’ character, in contrast with the ‘hieratic’ diction of the remaining hymns. We may use this convenient title, but must not forget to mention that in this part of the Rigveda are also contained some abstruse philosophical and cosmogonical speculations.
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63. We have thus outlined a rearrangement of the contents of the Rigveda into four principal groups, each containing subdivisions corresponding to the arrangement of the text of the Rigveda itself. This rearrangement is necessarily tentative, and the titles given to each group are intended merely to facilitate reference and to aid the memory. Such titles as ‘bardic’ and ‘popular’ may easily be found misleading if they are supposed to indicate in any adequate way the general history of Vedic poetry from the standpoint of the developement of social institutions: such a study lies beyond the purpose of this book.
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(iv) THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPEMENT OF THE ART OF VERSIFICATION.
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64. The time has perhaps hardly come when a fair estimate can be made of the literary and aesthetic powers of the Vedic bards: but it is important to examine the conditions of the mechanical problems presented to them, and to form some estimate of the skill shewn by them in handling their material. The sketch already given of the metrical contents of the Rigveda has shewn that each period, except the ‘normal’ period, was inventive. The bards were occupied in constructing fresh metrical schemes, as well as in producing verse following established models. They frequently compare their craft to the highest kind of workmanship known to them, that displayed in the construction of a war-chariot: and they shew confidence that a ‘new’ song will be more pleasing to the gods than one which is old-fashioned. It is a common-place of Western criticism that in many of the mechanical arts the Hindu workman follows too submissively ancient rules and models. But no such statement can justly be made with regard to the poetic literature of India, either ancient or modern: rather the faculty of inventing and appreciating new and delicate variations of rhythm seems to be a special gift of the race.
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65. The comparison of the earlier parts of the Avesta indicates that the first Vedic poets were not far from the period when verse was measured solely by the number of syllables, without any regard to their quantity. We have already noticed (§ 32) that the quantity of initial and final syllables is always indifferent in the Rigveda, and we have every reason to suppose that this feature is inherited from the earlier period of purely syllabic measurement. But in all other parts of the verse we find rhythmical tendencies, which determine with varying regularity the quantity required in each position.
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66. The principle of alternation of short and long syllables is simple, and we may well believe that the Vedic bards could have carried it to mechanical perfection, had they so desired. But in addition they were guided by other metrical motives, some of which have been described above (§§ 34, 35). Above all, they were actuated by the desire to combine these motives, and thus give variety to their metre. We are not perhaps entitled to ascribe the ‘break’ of trimeter verse to a deliberate design of interrupting the iambic rhythm, because it is quite possible that the caesura and the two short syllables that follow it may have been earlier in date than any such rhythm. But the ‘cretic’ rhythm certainly suggests a deliberate aiming at variety of form: and if it be granted that the ‘epic’ Anuṣṭubh is based upon the Anuṣṭubh of the Rigveda proper, the motive of the change seems evidently to be the same.
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67. ‘Contamination’ readily suggests careless workmanship, and may in some cases have been due to this cause. But it is also a ready instrument of the inventive temper. The historical relation of Triṣṭubh and Jagatī verse has often been discussed: and if one of the two is historically the earlier, the Triṣṭubh has certainly the better claim to this position. Either then Jagatī has been derived from Triṣṭubh by contamination with dimeter cadence, or a dimeter verse added to a similar half-verse has been assimilated to the rhythm of the Triṣṭubh. By one method or the other a metre not without a beauty of its own has been constructed. The contamination at a later period of Triṣṭubh with Jagatī did not lead to the construction of any harmonious metre: but perhaps in principle it is not to be distinguished from that mingling of the lyric metres from which grew the Bṛhatī-Satoṛbhatī strophe, which is probably generally recognized as the most beautiful metrical form of the Rigveda.
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68. The origin of the decasyllabic verse is a matter as to which a conjecture will be hazarded later (Ch. VIII), but it is only through this stage that we can account at all for the existence of the Dvipadā Virāj or Pentad metre, which was actually brought to as polished a perfection as any metre of the Rigveda.
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69. In all these cases it is not hard to recognize that apparent irregularity is the result of the inventive spirit, sometimes leading to the construction of new and harmonious forms, sometimes apparently ending in failure. This observation cannot fail to suggest reserve and care before bringing forward any suggestions of incompetence against the versifiers or of carelessness against the editors of our text. It is difficult to think that a professional bard should without motive have left his verse with an irregular rhythm, when any European scholar, without serious practice of the art of versification, can put it into order for him with hardly a perceptible alteration in the meaning. It is also difficult to think that professional reciters and their instructors could by mere accident have left stanzas in a shape which must make them a perpetual burden to the memory. In these ‘irregularities’ there may be meanings not easily recognized, and for this reason they deserve to be carefully studied.
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70. To whatever conclusions we may further be led in detail, it must be plain that as works of mechanical art the metres of the Rigveda stand high above those of modern Europe in variety of motive and in flexibility of form. They seem indeed to bear the same relation to them as the rich harmonies of classical music to the simple melodies of the peasant. And in proportion as modern students come to appreciate the skill displayed by the Vedic poets, they will be glad to abandon the easy but untenable theory that the variety of form employed by them is due to chance, or the purely personal bias of individuals: and to recognize instead that we find all the signs of a genuine historical developement, that is of united efforts in which a whole society of men have taken part, creating an inheritance which has passed through the generations from father to son, and holding up an ideal which has led each in turn to seek rather to enrich his successors than to grasp at his own immediate enjoyment. If this was so, then the Vedic bards also are to be counted amongst ‘great men, and……such as sought out musical tunes, and set forth verses in writing.’
Linked texts (1)
- Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit