Page:The Hymns of the Rigveda (English Translation).pdf/17

initially confined to a limited area of the line, it continues to expand and gain more intensive prominence. Therefore, if we consider the same trend in the pre-Vedic period, we must assume that the starting point of development is the state actually preserved in the Avesta. Furthermore, when we examine the metrics of the Gayatri, the Veda itself presents two forms of the same underlying verse that have apparently evolved in different directions: two forms that only converge at the point of prosodic indifference indicated by the Avesta. However, if the statements made here are accurate, we should not attribute a highly pronounced or immutable character to the rhythm of Indo-Iranian versification. If it possessed these characteristics, the rhythmic variability observed in the opening of Vedic verses would likely not have developed. Similarly, the closing of verses, as we believe it to exist in the Gayatri, would probably not have been capable of dual rhythmic development in opposing directions. Syllable count and caesura, it seems, were the only determinants in the construction of these series that reached full maturity, which were perhaps only incompletely imbued with rhythmic vitality. Despite the gaps and uncertainties in our knowledge at this point, they do not cast doubt on the fundamental connection between Indian and Iranian versification. Thus, Vedic metrics, as the foundation of all subsequent Indian metrics, leads us back to distant periods of history from which generations of Indian poets have passed, and even further back