Grihya Sutras

SR No.: 007685
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1886
Total Pages: 2642
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 1019

XC
VEDIC HYMNS.
ninth and the eleventh syllables in such pâdas may be long, and that in that case the preceding short vowel is not lengthened. We thus get the iambus in the very place which is generally occupied by the trochee. According to the Prâtisâkhya, the general scheme for the Gâyatra would be, not only
6 7
+ + + + + -ut,
but also
6 7 + + + + +-+;
and for the Traishtubha and Gâgata, not only
8
+ + + + + + + but also
9
·1~ + + (+),
1
8
9
1
+ + + + + + + And again, for the same pâdas,
+ + (+).
not only
+ + + + | + + + + | + but also
10 11
− ~ (+),
IO II
+ u -(+).
+ + + + | + + + + | Before appealing, however, to the Prâtisâkhya for the establishment of such a rule as that the sixth syllable of Anushtubha and the eighth or tenth syllable of Traishubha and Gågata pâdas must be lengthened, provided a short syllable follows, it is indispensable that we should have a clear appreciation of the real character of the Prâtisâkhya. If we carefully follow the thread which runs through these books, we shall soon perceive that, even with the proviso that a short syllable follows, the Prâtisâkhya never teaches that certain final vowels must be lengthened. The object of the Prâtisâkhya, as I pointed out on a former occasion, is to register all the facts which possess a phonetic interest. In doing this, all kinds of plans are adopted in order to bring as large a number of cases as possible under general categories. These categories are purely technical and external, and they never assume, with the authors of the Prâtisâkhya, the character of general rules. Let us now, after these preliminary remarks, return to the Sûtras 523 to 535, which we discussed before. The Prâtisâkhya simply says that certain syllables which are short in the
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