Having touched on this subject, I may add another fact in support of my view. The words Trishtubh and Anushtubh, names for the most common metres, are generally derived from a root stubh, to praise. I believe they should be derived from a root stubh, which is preserved in Greek, not only in στυφελός, hard, στυφελίζω, to strike hard, but in the root στεμφ, from which στέμφυλον, stamped or pressed olives or grapes, and ἀστεμφής, untrodden (grapes), then unshaken; and in στέμβω, to shake, to ram, στοβέω, to scold, &c. In Sanskrit this root is mentioned in the Dhâtupâtha X, 34, shtubhu stambhe, and it exists in a parallel form as stambh, lit. to stamp down, then to fix, to make firm, with which Bopp has compared the German stampfen, to stamp; (Glossarium, s. v. stambh.) I therefore look upon Trishtubh as meaning originally tripudium, (supposing this word to be derived from tri and pes, according to the expression in Horace, pepulisse ter pede terram, Hor. Od. iii. i8,) and I explain its name 'Three-step,' by the fact that the three last syllables  ̆  ̄  ̆, which form the characteristic feature of that metre, and may be called its real vritta or turn, were audibly stamped at the end of each turn or strophe. I explain Anushtubh, which consists of four equal pâdas, each of eight syllables, as the 'After-step,' because each line was stamped regularly after the other, possibly by two choruses, each side taking its turn. There is one passage in the Veda where Anushtubh seems to have preserved this meaning:

X, 124, 9. anu-stúbham ánu karkûryámânam índram ní kikyuh kaváyah manîshâ´.

Poets by their wisdom discovered Indra dancing to an Anushtubh.

In V, 52, 12, khandah-stúbhah kubhanyávah útsam â´

kîrínah nrituh, in measured steps (i. e. stepping the metre) and wildly shouting the gleemen have danced toward the spring.

Other names of metres which point to a similar origin, i. e. to their original connection with dances, are Pada-paṅkti, 'Step-row;' Nyaṅku-sârinî, 'Roe-step;' Abhisârinî, 'Contre-danse,' &c.

If now we return to the statement of the Prâtisâkhya in reference to the vrittas, we should observe how careful its author is in his language. He does not say that the penultimate is long or short, but he simply states, that, from a metrical point of view, it must be considered as light or heavy, which need not mean more than that it must be pronounced with or without stress. The fact that the author of the Prâtisâkhya uses these terms, laghu and guru, instead of hrasva, short, and dîrgha, long, shows in fact that he was aware that the penultimate in these pâdas is not invariably long or short, though, from a metrical point of view, it is always heavy or light.