01Given to Jaimini

When Maharshi Vyasa divided the Veda, the Vishnu Purana says, he gave the Samaveda to his disciple Jaimini, whose line handed it to Sumantu and Sukarma and on through many teachers. Patanjali calls it sahasravartma samavedah, the Samaveda of a thousand paths, for the many ways its schools sang. It is Shruti like the other three, heard by the rishis, and its riks are the same riks the Rigveda holds. The difference lies in the use. A rik is spoken; a saman is that rik lifted into melody for the udgatri at the Soma yajna. Shri Krishna names this Veda as his own glory in the Gita.

02Words of the Rigveda, sung

Of the 1,875 mantras of the Kauthuma Samhita, only about 75 are not found in the Rigveda. What makes them Samaveda is the singing. The saman stretches vowels, repeats syllables and adds stobhas, sung sounds such as hau and hoyi that carry no word-meaning. Over the syllables the manuscripts write numerals that mark the notes. The Chandogya Upanishad opens by meditating on this chant, the udgitha, as Om itself.

03Two archikas, nine and six prapathakas

The Kauthuma Samhita runs to 1,875 mantras. The Purvarchika, mantras 1 to 650, is the book of single verses on which the melodies are learned. Its Chhandas Archika (1 to 585) is set out in six prapathakas, grouped in dashatis of about ten verses and ordered by devata: Agni first, then Indra, then Soma Pavamana. The Aranya Archika (586 to 640) holds verses sung in the forest, and the ten Mahanamni verses (641 to 650) close it. The Uttararchika, mantras 651 to 1,875, runs in nine prapathakas, mostly in groups of three, in the order the stotras are sung at the Soma rite. It ends with svasti na indro, the blessing every puja still uses.

04The udgatri and the five parts of a saman

Three priests sing the saman together. The prastotar begins with the prastava, the opening. The udgatri, chief of the three, sings the udgitha, the heart of the chant, beginning with Om. The pratihartar answers with the pratihara. Then come the upadrava and the nidhana, the closing, sung by all. The Chandogya Upanishad (2.2) counts these five parts and meditates on each, seeing in them the parts of the day, the seasons, the worlds. The Naradiya Shiksha names seven svaras of the saman, from krushta at the top to atisvarya at the bottom, and matches them to the notes of the flute.

05Three shakhas still sung

The Kauthuma shakha is sung in Gujarat, Varanasi and Tamil Nadu. The Ranayaniya is kept in Karnataka and parts of Maharashtra. The Jaiminiya, named for Vyasa's disciple Jaimini, survives in a few Nambudiri families of Kerala and among Tamil Brahmins, with its own melodies. Each has its gana books: the Gramageya for singing in the village, the Aranyageya for the forest, and the Uha and Uhya for the yajna. The Kena and Chandogya Upanishads belong to the Samaveda.

06Its Brahmanas and Upanishads

The Kauthuma line counts eight Brahmanas. The Tandya or Panchavimsha, in twenty-five chapters, lays out the Soma sacrifices; the Shadvimsha is its twenty-sixth; then come the Samavidhana, the Arsheya, the Devatadhyaya, the Mantra or Chandogya Brahmana, the Samhitopanishad and the Vamsha, which lists the teachers. The Chandogya Upanishad is the later part of the Chandogya Brahmana. The Jaiminiya school has its own great Jaiminiya Brahmana and the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana, from which the Kena Upanishad comes. So two of the ten principal Upanishads, Chandogya and Kena, belong to this Veda.

07Mother of Indian music

Bharata's Natyashastra says that song was taken from the Samaveda when Brahma made the fifth Veda of drama. The Gandharva Veda, the shastra of music, is counted as the upaveda of the Samaveda. When a Carnatic or Hindustani singer begins a raga, the line runs back to the udgatri at the Soma yajna. Shri Krishna's words in the Gita, vedanam samavedo'smi, are the reason many families hold this Veda especially dear.

08Commentaries, recordings, the Upakarma

Sayanacharya wrote on the Samaveda Samhita and on its Brahmanas, and Bharatasvamin wrote an earlier commentary on the Samhita. Satyavrata Samashrami printed the Samhita with Sayana in Calcutta, with the gana books, in the nineteenth century. Because the melody cannot be written in full, recordings matter here more than for any other Veda, and twentieth-century recordings of Kauthuma, Ranayaniya and Jaiminiya singers now sit beside the manuscripts. Samavedis keep their own Upakarma, on the Hasta nakshatra in Bhadrapada, some weeks after the Yajurvedis, and begin the year's singing again on that day.

What it contains

1
Purvarchika: Chhandas Archika छन्द आर्चिकः
Mantras 1 to 585 in six prapathakas, arranged by devata and metre: verses to Agni first, then the long Indra section, then Soma Pavamana. Each verse is the base (yoni) on which one or more melodies are learned.
2
Purvarchika: Aranya and Mahanamni Archikas आरण्यार्चिकः, महानाम्न्यार्चिकः
Mantras 586 to 640 are the forest verses, sung only away from the village, and 641 to 650 the ten Mahanamni verses. Together they complete the 650 mantras of the Purvarchika.
3
Uttararchika उत्तरार्चिकः
Mantras 651 to 1,875 in nine prapathakas, grouped mostly in threes (trichas), in the order they are sung at the Soma yajna. The melodies learned on the Purvarchika are here applied to whole groups of verses. The Samhita ends at 1,875 with svasti na indro vriddhashravah.
4
Gana books गानग्रन्थाः
The Gramageya (village songs) and Aranyageya (forest songs) set out the melodies on the Purvarchika verses. The Uha and Uhya ganas apply them to the Uttararchika for the yajna. Here the verses are written out as actually sung, with stretched vowels, stobhas and the numerals that mark the notes.

Famous verses

अग्न आ याहि वीतये गृणानो हव्यदातये। नि होता सत्सि बर्हिषि॥
Come, O Agni, to the feast, praised, to carry the offerings; sit as hotar on the sacred grass.Samaveda (Kauthuma) 1, Purvarchika 1.1.1.1 (Rigveda 6.16.10)

स्वस्ति न इन्द्रो वृद्धश्रवाः स्वस्ति नः पूषा विश्ववेदाः। स्वस्ति नस्तार्क्ष्यो अरिष्टनेमिः स्वस्ति नो बृहस्पतिर्दधातु॥
May Indra of great fame grant us well-being; may Pushan, who knows all, grant us well-being; may Tarkshya, whose wheel is never harmed, and Brihaspati grant us well-being.Samaveda (Kauthuma) 1875, the last mantra of the Uttararchika (Rigveda 1.89.6)

वेदानां सामवेदोऽस्मि देवानामस्मि वासवः।
Among the Vedas I am the Samaveda; among the devas I am Indra.Bhagavad Gita 10.22

Influence

The Samaveda gave Indian music its first theory of notes and is the source of the Gandharva Veda. Sayana's commentary covers it, and recordings of the three shakhas made in the twentieth century preserve melodies that families had sung for generations.