Historical Development of Indian Music: A Critical Study c8.31

c8.31

The primitive type of music was gradually replaced by the newly moulded ones. The Vedic music, *sāmagāna* evolved through the medium of songs and singing processes of the chanters and singers, and their laws, materials and processes are contained in three main song-books, *grāmegeya-gāna*, *araṇyegeya-gāna* and *ūha* and *ūhya* *gānas*. These three Vedic song-books were really composed of three kinds of *Ṛks* or collections of verses and those *Ṛks* were : *Pūrvārcika*, *Āraṇyaka-Saṃhitā* and *Uttarārcika*. The verses were the sources or womb (*yoni*) of the songs. The uses of the *Pūrvārcika* were divided into three parts and they were dedicated to three gods or presiding deities, *Agni*, *Indra* and *Soma-Pavamāna*. The *gānas*, *grāmegeya* and *aranyegeya* existed side by side in the Vedic society and were regarded as the Vedic *gānas*. The only difference between them was : the former was sung publicly by all communities of people, whereas the latter was meant for the mystic chanters or singers of the sacred forests and they were religious and spiritual. The gānas, ūha and ūhya were also sung in the Vedic sacrifices side by side with the gānas, grāmegeya and araṇyegeya. The Pañca-vimśa-Brāhamaṇa states that the notes of the ūha and ūhya gānas were similar to those of the yonigāna or veyagāna.