Śruti / The four Vedas / Sāmaveda · 8 of 10

8. Melody and Gāndharva

Sāmaveda (सामवेद)

The Sāmaveda (सामवेद) is the Veda of what is sung. Most of its verses are ṛgvedic verses set to melody. The ṛc (ऋच्) is the verse as said. The sāman (सामन्) is that verse as sung. They are not the same text. The sung form stretches vowels, and it inserts syllables, the stobha (स्तोभ), which are not in the ṛc. Those syllables hold the melody. They are part of the chant's body.

The recension a student usually meets in print is the Kauthuma (कौथुम). The tradition also keeps the names Rāṇāyanīya (राणायनीय) and Jaiminīya (जैमिनीय), the last also called Talavakāra (तलवकार). This page does not count the chants. The Kena belongs to the Talavakāra side. The Chāndogya belongs to the Kauthuma side. Both are in the twelve.

The science of sound, as this Veda practices it, is the fitting of a verse to a melody so that the rite can sing what the Ṛgveda said. Pitch, prolongation, and the inserted syllable are the craft. The craft is sacred because the sacrifice required song, not because a later concert tradition had already been born.

Indian classical music, the gāndharva (गान्धर्व) this library sits beside the practice, traces the authority of sacred melody to this Veda. The systems of rāga (राग) are later books. They are not inside the Sāmaveda. The lore of how celestial gāndharva came down into earthly deśī is on the Gāndharva shelf. Nāda (नाद), as Śārṅgadeva speaks of it, is on the speech shelf, with Bhartṛhari. This sitting is the Veda those later mouths cite.

नेपालीमा

सामवेद गाइने वेद हो। धेरैजसो ऋचा ऋग्वेदकै हुन्, तर गाइएको रूप सामन् हो। ऋच् र सामन् एउटै पाठ होइनन्। स्वर तानिन्छ। स्तोभ थपिन्छ, जुन ऋचामा थिएन।

छापिएको पाठ प्रायः कौथुम हो। राणायनीय र जैमिनीय वा तलवकार पनि छन्। केन तलवकारतिर हो। छान्दोग्य कौथुमतिर हो। रागपद्धति पछिको पुस्तक हो। गान्धर्वको कथा गान्धर्वमा छ। नाद वाणीको सङ्ग्रहमा छ।

Where it sits

The Atharvaveda, the Veda of the house and of healing named as a theme, is the next sitting. The Chāndogya narrative is among the twelve.