The History of Indian Literature c8.155

c8.155

The *Saṃhitá* of the Sámaveda is an anthology taken from the Ṛik-Saṃhitá, comprising those of its verses which were intended to be chanted at the ceremonies of the Soma sacrifice. Its arrangement would seem to be guided by the order of the Ṛik-Saṃhitá; but here, as in the case of the two Saṃhitás of the Yajus, we must not think to find any continuous connection. Properly speaking, each verse is to be considered as standing by itself: it only receives its real sense when taken in connection with the particular ceremony to which it belongs. So stands the case at least in the first part of the Sáma-Saṃhitá. This is divided into six *prapáṭhakas*, each of which dagger consists of ten *daśats* or decades, of ten verses each, a division which existed as early as the time of the second part of the Śatapatha-Bráhmaṇa, and within which the separate verses are distributed according to the deities to whom they are addressed. The first twelve decades contain invocations of Agni, the last eleven invocations of Soma, while the thirty-six intermediate ones are for the most part addressed to Indra. The second part of the Sáma-Saṃhitá, on the contrary, which is divided into nine *prapáṭhakas*, each of which again is subdivided into two or occasionally three sections, invariably presents several, usually three, verses closely connected with one another, and forming an independent group, the first of them having generally appeared already in the first part. The principle of distribution here is as yet obscure.⁵⁹ In the Saṃhitá these verses are still exhibited in their *ṛich*-form, although with the *sáman*-accents; but in addition to this we have four *gánas*, or song-books, in which they appear in their *sáman-form*. For, in singing they were consider-