Zend Avesta Part 03

SR No.: 007673
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: L H Mills
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1887
Total Pages: 2618
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 576

CX
VEDIC HYMNS.
7. The group avă is to be pronounced auă. Ex. ävase becomes auase; săvitā becomes sauitā; năvă becomes nāua.
8. The group ayă is to be changed into aia or ea. Ex. näyasi becomes naiasi.
9. The group vă is to be changed into ua, and this ua to be treated as a kind of diphthong and therefore long. Ex. kanvătămāh becomes kănuatămāh; vărúnah becomes
ūrünah.
10. The short vowel in the reduplicated syllable of perfects is to be lengthened. Ex. tatanan, dadhire.
11. Short vowels before all aspirates may be lengthened. Ex. rathåh becomes rāthâh; sakhà becomes sakha.
12. Short vowels before h and all sibilants may be lengthened. Ex. mahini becomes māhini ; usigâm becomes usigâm; rishate becomes rishătē; dăsat becomes dasat.
13. The short vowel before t may be lengthened. Ex. vågavatah becomes vågavatah; atithih becomes atithih.
14. The short vowel before d may be lengthened. Ex. udaram becomes ūdaram ; ud ava becomes ud ava.
15. The short vowel before p may be lengthened. Ex, apam becomes apám; tapushim becomes tāpushim; gri. hăpatim becomes grihāpatim.
16. The short vowel before g and g may be lengthened, Ex. sânushag asat becomes sanushag asat; yunagan becomes yunagan.
Let us now turn back for one moment to look at the slaughter which has been committed ! Is there one single rule of prosody that has been spared? Is there one single short syllable that must always remain short, or a long syllable that must always remain long? If all restrictions of prosody are thus removed, our metres, no doubt, become perfectly regular. But it should be remembered that these metrical rules, for which all this carnage has been committed, are not founded upon any a priori principles, but deduced by ancient or modern metricians from those very hymns which seem so constantly to violate
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