Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c6.14

c6.14

75. An examination of the distinctive grammatical forms as a whole shews us that the hymns of the Rigveda proper record an earlier stage in the developement of the Sanskrit language; for they shew that multiplicity of form in the stem-formation and flexion both of nouns and verbs which marks the earlier history of all Indo-European languages. The unthematic flexional forms of nouns, and the extended use of the perfect, aorist, subjunctive, and infinitive systems in verbs are particularly conspicuous. On the other hand the language of the popular hymns, though enriched by certain sounds hardly known to the Rigveda proper, shews a tendency to uniformity, obtained by the steady progress of certain favoured types in destroying or assimilating their rivals.