Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c5.s2.23

c5.s2.23

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.