Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c5.s2.20

c5.s2.20

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.