an important part of Indo-European verbal art and often expressed itself in
figures characterized by assonance of one sort or another.
Metrical terminologyIndo-European poetry was a craft practised by professionals and handed
down from one to another. The techniques of versification had to be
mastered; in the case of the Irish filid we know that they progressed through
a series of metres in the course of their years of training. It would not be
surprising if a technical vocabulary relating to metre and versification
developed among such specialists at an early date. There are in fact certain
elementary parallels between Indo-Iranian and Greek terminology that
suggest the existence of such a technical language at least in the Graeco-Aryan
world.
In the Rigveda the verb ma ̄‘measure’ is used in connection with the com-
position of the poem. In the epilogue of 1. 38 there is a series of imperatives
(13–15): ‘Hymn Brahmanaspati with extended song... Measure out
(mimı ̄hí) the laudation with your mouth, sheet it like Parjanya, sing the song
of eulogy! Praise the Maruts’ horde!’ In 8. 76. 12 the poet declares, va ̄ ́cam
as
̇
t
̇a ̄ ́padı ̄m ahám
̇návasraktim... mame, ‘I have measured out an eight-step,
nine-cornered hymn.’ This refers to the hymn’sga ̄yatrı ̄ metre, eight-syllable
lines in three-line strophes that are themselves grouped in triads. ‘Eight-step’
does not mean ‘consisting of eight steps’, but ‘in steps of the eight(-syllable)
type’, since the term padám‘footstep’ denotes a whole verse, whether of eight
or eleven or some other number of syllables. Compare 1. 164. 23 f.,
yád ga ̄yatré ádhi ga ̄yatrám a ̄hitam ́
̇,
traís
̇
t
̇
ubha ̄d va ̄ traís
̇
t
̇
ubham
̇
nir-átaks
̇
ata,
yád va ̄ jágaj jágati a ̄hitam padám ́
̇:
yá ít tád vidús, té amr
̇
tatvám a ̄nas ́uh
̇
.
ga ̄yatrén
̇a práti mimı ̄te arkám,
arkén
̇
a sa ̄ma, traís ́
̇
t
̇
ubhena va ̄kám,
va ̄kéna va ̄kám
̇dvipáda ̄ cátus
̇pada ̄;
aks
̇
áren
̇
a mimate saptá va ̄n ́
̇
ı ̄h
̇
.
Thatga ̄yatra is laid down upon ga ̄yatra,
or that tris
̇
t
̇
ubh was built from tris
̇
t
̇
ubh,
that the jagat step is laid down on jagat––
they who know this have escaped death.
With the ga ̄yatra one measures out the stanza,
with the stanza the song; with the tris
̇
t
̇
ubh the verse;
with the two-step or four-step verse the poem.
By syllable they measure out the seven tones.- Poet and Poesy 59