Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c6.15

c6.15

76. The differences of vocabulary lead directly to a somewhat different conclusion. Here divergence of style and subject-matter seem more prominent. Amongst the ‘popular’ words are a great number of Indo-European origin which must certainly have been familiar to the poets of the ‘Rigveda proper,’ though seldom used by them, having to do with the familiar objects and activities of ordinary life. Hence we are led to the contrast between the ‘heroic’ and the ‘popular’ language, and to the possibility that both may have been simultaneously in use for different purposes. Other words, however, support the inference of earlier date already drawn from the grammatical forms: nor is it possible to draw a line between the two classes, which are in practice associated in all the hymns in which they occur.