The Metronome Approach to S anskrit Meter: Analysis for the Rigveda (2024)

Abstract: This study analyzes the verses of the Rigveda, the oldest Sanskrit text, from a metrical perspective. Based on metrical structures, the verses are represented by four elements: light syllables, heavy syllables, word boundaries, and line boundaries. As a result, it became evident that among verses traditionally categorized under the same metrical name, there are those forming distinct clusters. Furthermore, the study reveals commonalities in metrical structures, such as similar metrical patterns grouping together despite differences in the number of lines. Going forward, it is anticipated that this methodology will enable comparisons across multiple languages within the Indo-European language family.

## introduction the oldest of the vedic literature, the rigveda, possesses a metrical structure. metrical analysis involves examining the patterns of syllables, word boundaries, and poetic line boundaries, which are foundational elements in the study of ancient indo-european poetry. metronome analysis that is solely based on the metrical structure was demonstrated in latin and some languages (section 3). similar to latin, vedic sanskrit also considers the elements of syllable weight, word boundaries, and poetic line boundaries as components of its metrical structure (section 2). by focusing on the metrical structure, the same analysis as latin can be applied to sanskrit, especially vedicpoetry, as discussed in section 4. consequently, analyzing the rigveda based on its metrical elements revealed that even when assigned the same metrical name, they clearly belong to different clusters (section 5). this research enables us to uncover patterns and structures that are not immediately apparent through traditional philological or linguistic methods (section 6). ## vedic meter sanskrit, belonging to the indo-aryan branch of the indo-iranian subfamily within the indo-european language family, has literature with a metrical structure. in particular, the vedic literatures, in which vedic sanskrit is used, an ancient stage of the sanskrit language, are known for their metrical composition. the calculation of meter in sanskrit is syllabic; that is, sanskrit poetry shapes its rhythm based on the number of syllables and their weight. in this context, an overview of the meter in the rigveda, which is used for analysis, is provided. the rigveda is the oldest among the vedic literature and consists of metrical verses. in the tradition of rigveda studies, "meter" refers to the rhythmic pattern of entire verses composed of lines with a consistent rhythm. the meters of the rigvedic verses are mentioned in traditional literature written in sanskrit (macdonell, 1886), anukraman . ī. although metrical patterns refer to the rhythmic patterns of entire verses in the rigveda, the fundamental unit in actual structural patterns is the individual line. as shown in the representative studies of meters in the rigveda @xcite @xcite @xcite have frequently focused on aspects such as syllable counts and syllable weight patterns in the cadence. this emphasis arises from the strong tendency in the rigveda to strictly determine the rhythm based on syllable counts and syllabic weight patterns in the cadence. the study of vedic meter made significant advancements following the research of oldenberg 1 known as trochaic gāyatrī. @xcite . about a century later, gippert pioneered the computer-based analysis of meters @xcite . recent research on vedic meter @xcite , including the studies mentioned above @xcite @xcite , focuses on the phonology of vedic sanskrit and the historical changes of sounds from proto-indo-european to sanskrit. while these studies focus on phonological aspects and the development of phonological theories based on metrical patterns, there has been limited exploration of vedic meters from a stylometric perspective. our research aims to bridge this gap by applying a stylometric approach to the analysis of vedic poetry, inspired by the metronome analysis of latin poetry. ## method this study follows the metronome analysis proposed by nagy (2023); @xcite . similar to their approach, it converts all verses in the rigveda into four elements of the metronome, 'w' for a light syllable, 's' for a heavy syllable, '.' for a word boundary, and '|' for a verse boundary, to perform metrical analysis. an example of the transformation of rigveda text into the metronome is provided in for clarity in the analysis results, the scope of the text is limited. since the rigveda comprises ten books with a total of over 10,000 verses, the analysis is conducted book by book. notably, books 2 to 7 of the rigveda are known as family books, consisting of verses attributed to a single poetic family. family books are considered to contain relatively more ancient verses of the rigveda, making them particularly significant @xcite . ## result first, we shall focus on books 2 to 7 of the rigveda, known as family books, and also include the first and second halves of book 8. 5 figure 1 shows the result of clustering on book 7, whose author is vasis . t . ha foot_4 . the color threshold is set to 15. while the upper three groups (brown, purple, and red) are mainly tris . t . ubh verses, the green group contains tris . t . ubh and jagatī verses. distant from these, the bottom yellow group contains eight-syllable verses. the other family books also have the tendency that some of tris . t . ubh verses are more similar to jagatī than other tris . t . ubh and eight-syllable verses are close despite their difference in the number of syllable. upon closer examination of eight-syllable verses, it can be seen that gāyatrī, anus . t . ubh, paṅkti (= 8 syllables × 5 lines), and br ˚hatī (= 8 syllables × 2 lines followed by two-syllable line and ending with eight-syllable line) form a cohesive group (figure 2 ). however, it is not possible to discern the difference between gāyatrī in tone and gāyatrī in tone here. ## conclusion the analysis in this study revealed that some verses with the tris . t . ubh meter, traditionally considered to have rhythmical pattern similar to that of the jagatī meter @xcite ., are distinctly different from standard tris . t . ubh verses. even though tris . t . ubh verses were traditionally labeled as such, it was empirically known that some lines within these verses exhibited the rhythmic pattern of jagatī meter lines in the cadence. in practice, scholars have sometimes categorized tris . t . ubh and jagatī as trimeter (= opening + caesura + cadence) and gāyatrī, anus . t . ubh, and so on as dimeter (= opening + cadence), respectively, while at other times making clear distinctions based on syllable counts. regarding eight-syllable verses, gāyatrī, anus . t . ubh, paṅkti all share the commonality of having eight syllables per line, with the only difference being the number of lines. generally, it is believed that the rhythmic pattern is determined by the number of syllables per line, regardless of the number of lines. this study reveals that various eight-syllable verses do form cohesive clusters, indicating that the rhythmic pattern is indeed primarily influenced by the number of syllables per line. additionally, a closer look at this cluster reveals that gāyatrī and br ˚hatī meters each form distinct subclusters, showcasing rhythmic similarities based on differences in the number of lines. unlike previous studies mentioned in the section 3 that focus solely on cadence, our research examines the entire verse, leading to these significant findings of the similarity of different syllable counts. this comprehensive approach highlights the importance of considering the whole verse. this study contributes to vedic philology by providing a nuanced understanding of the rhythmic structures within rigvedic verses. by identifying distinct clusters and subclusters based on metrical patterns, our research contributes to a better understanding of the development of vedic meters over time and can offer insights into the chronological aspects of rigvedic verses. while this study primarily focuses on the figure 2: enlarged view of the gāyatrī section from figure 1 (g: gāyatrī, a: anus . t . ubh, b: br ˚hatī) rigveda, the methodology and findings have broader implications for other vedic texts and even extend to other indo-european poetries. the rhythmic patterns and clustering identified in this study could serve as a model for analyzing similar meter structures in other vedic texts, as well as later sanskrit literatures.