Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c7.s2: § 2. The Sāma-Veda

Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c7.s2

Language: English

§ 2. The Sāma-Veda

c7.s2.1

The accentuation of the Sāma Veda, as used in South-India, is a subject beset with difficulties, of which it is impossible here to give more than a very brief notice, for not only do the MSS. of different Çākhās present different systems, but the MSS. of the text followed by one and the same Çākhā often present essential variations². MSS. of the Ārcika parts of this Veda are seldom accented, as being of little importance, for the gānas really constitute the Veda. Occasionally one finds the udātta marked by a circle. The musical notation of the gānas as practised in S. India is very complicated, and is explained in a separate paribhāshā³. It appears to be on much the same principle as the musical notation of the ancient Greeks, and consists in using combinations of a consonant with a vowel to express a group of notes. This old system (as it is termed) which was used by Sāyaṇa, has been nearly superseded by the N. Indian notation by numbers, which was introduced from Gujarat into Tanjore during the last century at the earliest. Even now, it is excessively hard to find a Sāma-Vedī who can give any explanation at all of these notes, and in a few years the only guides will be the treatises on the formation of the gānas which indeed are, probably, the only safe ones at present.

c7.s2.2

² See my "Catalogue of a Collection of Sanskrit MSS.," pt. i., pp. 48, 49; "Ārsheyabrāhmaṇa", pp. xli-xlvii.; "Classified Index to the Tanjore MSS.," p. 10.

c7.s2.3

³ I have already given specimens, with an account of the Paribhāshā in my "Catalogue" pp. 44-5. The Jaiminīya çākhā has a different notation and paribhāshā.

c7.s2.4

Palæographically, the notation of the Vedic accents is a subject almost devoid of interest. The different methods used for the different Vedas are all of very recent origin, comparatively; and have arisen in different parts of India much about the same time, and in consequence of the decay of the old way of learning the Vedas by heart. In S. India there is no pretence of a complete or even uniform system, and ᴍss. with accents do not appear to occur before the middle of the sixteenth century. The multitude of treatises on Vedic phonetics still existing in S. India must always have made the want of accented ᴍss. but little felt, and all the old Vedic Brahmans that I have met with, never attached the least value to them.

c7.s2.5

As the S. Indian alphabets have no system of accents at all agreeing with those in use in the North of India, it follows that in the early centuries A. D. the accents were not marked at all.

c7.s2.6

It is thus quite certain that the endless varieties of accent-marks are merely individual and more or less perfect attempts to accentuate the Vedic texts according to the teaching of the Prātiçākhyas.

Linked texts (1)

Sāmavedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit