[en] Previous work on transient polarization spectroscopy applying the induced grating technique concentrated on the time scale > 10^-11 s. Only one earlier study on a shorter time scale showed the occurrence of the so-called coherence peak without a detailed explanation for this phenomena. We report new theoretical and experimental data on a polarization effect that occurs in the nonlinear Rayleigh scattering of delayed probing pulses from induced population gratings. The periodic population changes are generated by two synchronized pumping pulses of the same frequency. Model calculations are presented, which carefully evaluate the orientational distribution and give quantitative information on the scattering signal for various polarization conditions. The scattering mechanism for the coherence peak is explained as a two step process with one photon absorption and emission process; it depends on the vibronic relaxation of the terminating level in the excited electronic state. Experimental results are reported for the vibrational and orientational relaxation times. For example values of tausub(v)=0.2+-0.2 ps and tausub(v)=0.8+-0.3 ps are measured respectively for Rhodamine 6G in ethanol and phenoxazone 9 in dioxane. Our three-beam transient grating technique under general polarization conditions can be used for the study of a variety of dynamic processes of molecules in the excited electronic or ground state. An important advantage compared to nonlinear absorption or induced dichroism techniques is that the scattering method avoids undesirable background signals. (author)