Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c6.9

c6.9

In the case of long hymns and collections of hymns characteristic features must necessarily occur with fair frequency, and difficulty only arises when the features of the opposite groups are found in the same hymn or collection. In such cases the general inference must be that the hymn or collection belongs to a transition period, as for instance the collections i 31—35, i 94—115, and those which extend generally from x 35 to x 84, which we have already assigned to the ‘cretic’ period (§ 61). Here the only real doubt is whether the transition period lies nearer to the one or the other of the two main groups: and this question is clearly one which should be reserved to a late stage of our enquiry.