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Sama Veda


#63, 13
Main, 4
Block East, Jayanagar
Bangalore 560 011

Phone: +91-80-26556315
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Sama, Rik, Yajus Connection

Text of the Song

Chanting & Error Correcting Code

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Introduction to Samaveda

Samaveda is the third of the collections of Vedic mantras. It has exactly 1875
mantras or verses, each of which has a specific metre. The texts of most of
these verses are in the Rigveda Samhita which has 10,552 verses, i.e., the text
of each mantra of Samaveda is identical to the text of some mantra of Rigveda
Samhita, but the corresponding mantras of the two Samhitas differ in their
notation for intonation.
Samaveda is the earliest known systematic procedure for giving a melody to a
chanted verse. Most persons who have heard with devotion the singing of
Samaveda verses will attest to the sense of exhilaration or ecstasy experienced
by them. It is no wonder that the famous epic poem Bhagavad Gita [Chap. 10,
Verse 22] in the epic Mahabharata declares that the Samaveda is the best
among the four Vedas. Each Sama vedic mantra contains in it not only the deep
meaning of the counter part of Rig vedic mantra but also has the added
dimension of music. Samaveda is the foundation for all systems of music in the
subcontinent of India.

Samaveda itself has three recensions namely Kouthumiya, rahayaniya and
jaiminiya. The first two are identical in both text and intonation, they differ from
each other only in grouping of the verses or mantras into adhyayas etc. This is
the text given here. The J aimini recension has fewer mantras, only 1693, but it
has more ganas or final songs namely 3681. The distinction between the texts of
these recensions is discussed in the edition by Satvalekar.
Each chapter or adhyaya takes verses for different mandalas of the Rigveda. For
instance the first ten mantras of the first adhyaya of Samaveda having 11
mantras have same text as following RV Samhita: 6.16.10, 4.16.1, 1.12.1,
6.16.34, 8.73.1, 8.60.1, 8.11.7, 6.16.13. the eleventh mantra has no
corresponding RV mantra.
The reason is that compiler made the selection based on musical considerations.
All verses in the same adhyaya or decade have one common metre and one
deity. All the deities present in RV are also present in this subset of RV verses,
except that the verses for Pavamana Soma are numerous.

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Sama, Rk and Yajus-Connections

Three types of mantras and four collections
In the Vedic books, there are three types of mantras, namely Rk, Yajus and
Sama. A verse with a metre is Rk. A prose verse without metre is Yajus. A verse
used for singing is Saman. The same text of verse, say in RV (6.16.10), can be
chanted as a Rk mantra or as a Sama mantra as in the first verse of Samaveda.
Rigveda is the collection of all Rks to be chanted. Yajurveda is the collection of
all mantras useful in rituals; it includes all Yajus mantras and some mantras in
Rigveda. Similarly Samaveda is made of all Sama verses. Atharvaveda consists
mainly of Rks and some Yajus. All the four collections are equally sacred.

Samaveda and Rigveda
It was mentioned that the texts of most of the Samaveda verse came from
Rigveda. The complete recession of Rigveda available today is Shakala. Of the
1875 mantras, 1770 are in Shakala recension of Rigveda. Another 29 verses can
be traced to the mantras of the Khila suktas of Rigveda and some slightly
modified versions of the mantras of RV. The remaining 76 mantras in Samaveda
presumably are from the recensions of RV which are lost today.
The close relationship between the Rigveda and Samaveda are mentioned in
several upanishads like Chandogya. The famous Brhadaranyaka upanishad
compares the relationship between these two upanishads to that between a
husband and wife [Br. up. 6.4.20 and Atharvaveda 14.2.71].

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Text of the Song and text of Verse

As mentioned earlier, the singing of the Samaveda Verse is not an adhoc
improvisation, but follows a strict procedure. There is a method for producing the
text for the song based on the corresponding Sama mantra. There are two
stages. In the first stage, a more elaborate scheme is introduced for marking the
text of the mantra, which is some mantra in Rigveda. For instance, the text of
first verse in Samaveda is same that of the verse (6.16.10) of Rigveda. In
Rigveda, each syllable is recited in one of three ways. Svarita [marked with a
vertical line], udatta [horizontal line below letter], anudatta [no sign on syllable].
Each verse of Samaveda is marked with one or two of seven signs, namely the
numerals 1, 2, 3 and the consonants u, ra, ka, the seventh being the absence of
any mark. This version is called he shell of the Sama verse or basic Sama verse
and is displayed on our web site and in printed books.
In the second stage, the basic text is expanded by adding new vowels, modifying
some syllables and adding numerals at various points to denote the time
duration of the singing of those syllables. This version is called as gana found
only in books specializing in Samaveda singing. The text of the gana or song is
displayed elsewhere as a gif file. For example, the first verse of Samaveda
(whose text is same as RV 6.16. 10) has three gana versions or ganas named
after the rishi who 'heard' it or developed it and their names as Gotama's parka,
Kashyap's parka. The rishi Gautama is a son or descendent of rishi Gotama.
Thus from the basic 1875 verses, we get 2722 ganas which are sung. The ganas
are divided into four categories, gramageya (ordinary folk), aranyageya (wood),
uha (guess or extrapolation), uhya (secret), the corresponding numbers being
1197, 294, 1026 and 205.

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Chanting and Error Correcting Codes

The Samaveda texts were preserved orally long before methods of preservation
of written material became robust. Even today the emphasis is on oral mastery.
The traditionalists feel strongly that all the benefits of singing of Samaveda
accrue only when every syllable of every verse in the entire adhyaya or chapter
is chanted or sung correctly. But we do know that the printed books of vedic
hymns printed in this century in India have many errors. Moreover the pool of
persons who completely concentrate on the oral mastery of these texts is
shrinking day by day. What happens in a few decades or centuries when we
have only different versions of the different texts? How can we locate the correct
one among the many erroneous copies?
The Vedic sages were not only great spiritual savants, but also very practical
people. They envisioned the possibility of having many erroneous copies. They
developed a procedure for detecting the correct version. This procedure is similar
to the modem parity control codes in the electrical communication and computer
The great vedic scholar Pandit Sreepad Damodar Satvalekar discovered or
recognized these procedures and he details them in the (Sanskrit) introduction to
his edition of Samaveda Samhita published in 1956 (4th edition).
In this procedure, an entire adhyaya or chapter of about ten verses is regarded
as a unit. At the end of this adhyaya a syllable is given. The syllables for the first
five adhyayas are ve, kha , the, di and sha
From the syllable kha, we can infer the following numbers for the entire chapter
or adhyaya 2:
1. the number of unmarked syllables not at end of a verse in the entire
adhyaya, modulo 5: It is two.
2. the number of syllables with the udatta, marked 2u, (two symbols on the
same syllable, 2 and u being Sanskrit numeral and vowel): It is two.
3. the number of svarita symbols marked 2 ra: It is six.
One can verify that these numbers are correct by counting the corresponding
syllables. We detail the algorithm elsewhere.