Page:A history of Sanskrit literature (1900), Macdonell, Arthur Anthony.djvu/68

 and Indians were still one people, depended on no other principle than the counting of syllables. In the Sanskrit period, on the other hand, the quantity of every syllable in the line was determined in all metres, with the sole exception of the loose measure (called çloka) employed in epic poetry. The metrical regulation of the line, starting from its end, thus finally extended to the whole. The fixed rhythm at the end of the Vedic line is called vṛitta, literally "turn" (from vṛit, Lat. vert-ere), which corresponds etymologically to the Latin versus.

The eight-syllable line usually ends in two iambics, the first four syllables, though not exactly determined, having a tendency to be iambic also. This verse is therefore the almost exact equivalent of the Greek iambic dimeter.

Three of these lines combine to form the gāyatrī metre, in which nearly one-fourth (2450) of the total number of stanzas in the Rigveda is composed. An example of it is the first stanza of the Rigveda, which runs as follows:—


 * Agním īle puróhitaṃ
 * Yajnásya devám ṛitvíjaṃ
 * Hótāraṃ ratnadhā́tamam.

It may be closely rendered thus in lines imitating the rhythm of the original:—


 * I praise Agni, domestic priest,
 * God, minister of sacrifice,
 * Herald, most prodigal of wealth.

Four of these eight-syllable lines combine to form the anushṭubh stanza, in which the first two and the last two are more closely connected. In the Rigveda the number of stanzas in this measure amounts to only