Selected Recording |
"Sāmaveda, Opening
Hymn" (The Four Vedas; Folkways FE 4126, I:B:1). |
The presentation of Sāmaveda mantras is rather different from that of the other Vedas. The difference
is between between that of chanting and of recitation: priests chant the Samaveda with melodies that can involve a range of more than an octave. |
The Sāmaveda draws almost entirely on verses from the Rgveda. The tradition of Sāmaveda chanting modifies the verses of the Rgveda to fit the various structures of the melodies. According to Howard (2000: 239), the melodies themselves may predate the Rgveda as they form the core of the seminal agnicayana ceremony (in which priests sing songs to accompany the laying of bricks for the sacrificial altar). These changes can obfiscate the phonetics of the original words to accommodate built-in divisions such as breaths. Often, in these instances, the melodies create new words (stobhas). |
The following text — an invocation (6.16.10) to the god of the sacrificial fire, Agni — appears first as a Rgvedic verse and then set to three different melodies. |
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Samhitā |