The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s7.t3.23

v2.c40.s7.t3.23

³ To certain of Hertel’s metrical views the strongest exception must be taken. To carry out his rule that the first syllable of a dissyllabic, and the second of a trisyllabic, middle part of the Triṣṭubh is short he has to argue for *oṣădhyaḥ*, *purăstād*, *paramam* (*sāmyam*) as two shorts, *sŭriasya*, *kavayŏ yānti*, and *agrăhyam*; he turns *-āni* and *-eṣu* into single final syllables, and postulates a great number of quite impossible elisions of short vowels. These, added to text alterations, enable him to reform the metre, but they do not justify his severe censure of Deussen for his perfectly just strictures on the metre of the text as we have it. Every metrical irregularity could thus be removed from any text, and Hertel’s procedure is specially inconsistent, since he objects to alteration of Prākritic irregularities in grammar, which might equally well be changed, if the Upaniṣad is to be rewritten. But metre may be excused in a philosopher.