Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 311

302
Amrita
III. In lines of twelve syllables :
1st28
2nd 29
4th 30
before caesura
5th31
before caesura
7th 32
8th 33
9th 34
cf. II. 1. 9c; X. 49. 5c.
51
11
The facts are sufficiently clear and decisive. In the vast majority of the cases, the final e and o before the elided a- is long, while in a few cases the value remains doubtful. It is only in two cases of the 9th syllable that they appear to show a short value, but both the lines are metrically defective. Like the earlier cases where the loss of a- is metrical and hence attributable to the poets themselves, these cases also reveal the fact that. the redactors have followed the same principles of dropping the initial a- after the long ê and 7, thus preserving the memory of their long value in a definite number of cases. It is just possible that in a few individual cases, they may have made mistakes or confused the real values of the finals, which is not surprising in view of the same writing of e and o every where. In any case they never intended to indicate by the loss of a., a loss of that syllable in actual pronunciation.
If the above suggestion is correct, it should be possible to verify it by the large number of cases, where the initial a- is not elided after the final e and o in RV. Naturally we should expect in all such cases a short value for the finale and o, justified by the metre, wherever we are in a position to decide it. Indeed, this fact, viz. the metre normally requires a short value of final e and o before a- was already noted by the Vedic scholars long ago, and they have given it even a wider scope than is justified. According to the current opinion of scholars like Oldenberg, Arnold, Macdonell and others, wherever the a- of the Samhitā is to be read, whether it is written or not, the preceding e or o must be pronounced short, and we have seen above, how this short value is explained by Oldenberg by the supposition that it was really the sound a in all such cases, later changed to e and o. Our discussion