Related Links

सामवेद संहिता

Samaveda A Nature and Importance The Samaveda is shortest of all the four Vedas It is closely connected with the Rigveda It is important to note that the Samhita of the Samaveda is an independent collection Samhita yet it has taken many verses a large number indeed from the Samhita of Rigveda These verses are chiefly derived from the eighth and the ninth Mandalas of the Rigveda The Samaveda is compiled exclusively for ritual application for its verses are all meant to be chanted at the ceremonies of the Somasacrifice and procedures derived from it The Samaveda is therefore specially intended for the Udagatr priest Its stanzas assume their proper character of musical samans or chants only in the various songbooks called Ganas According to the Jaiminiya Sutra 8211 8216Melody is called Saman8217 Traditional the Vedas are spoken as8216Trayi8216 because thay are composed of three kinds in mantras Rcs or verses Yajus or prose Saman or chants Among the four Vedas the Samaveda is regarded as the foremost In the Bhagavadgata where Lord Krishna has declared 8220Among the Vedas I am Samaveda8221Vedanama Samavedosmi Gita 1022 Here Indra Agni and Soma deities are mainly invoked and praised but most of the time these prayers seem to be the invocations for the Supreme Being In the spiritual sense Soma represents Allpervading Glorious Lord and Brahman who is attainable only through devotion and musical chanting Thus major theme of the Samaveda can be regarded as worship and devotion Upasana B Form and Division According to the ancient tradition told by Patanjali the Samaveda had 1000 rescensions Shakhas But at present there are only three rescensions These are 1 Kauthuma 2 Jaiminiya 3 Ranayaniya But today Kauthuma Shakha is known more prominently The Samaveda Samhita of Kauthumas consists of two parts Archika and gana The Archika is also separated in two 8211 the Purvarcika and the Uttararcika First part contains four parts Agneya 8211 114 verses for Agni Aindra 8211 352 verses for Indra Pavamana 8211 119 verses for Soma Pavamana Aranya 8211 55 verses for Indra Agni Soma etc And Mahanamni Mantras 10 This part consists of 650 verses The Uttararcika the second part of the SamavedaSamhita consists total number of 1225 verses So the total number of verses in the SamavedaSamhita is 1875 Amongst these 1771 Verses are from the Rigveda Only 99 verses of this Samhita are not found in the Rigveda Samhita and thus are regarded to be of Samaveda itself The Gana part of the Samavead is also divided into Prakrti Gana and Uha Gana Strictly speaking the Uha Gana is not part of the original Veda but the application of the Samans from the Prakrti Gana based on the Purvarcika to the mantras of the Uttararcika