A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s5.17

v1.c8.s5.17

The number of known melodies must have been a very large one,⁴ and already at a very early period every melody had a special name. Not only are they often mentioned by these names in the ritual-books, but various symbolical meanings are also ascribed to them, and they play no insignificant part in the symbolism and mysticism of the Brāhmaṇas, Āraṇyakas and Upaniṣads, especially a few of them, such as the two melodies "Bṛhat" and "Rathantara," which already appear in the Ṛgveda. The priests and theologians certainly did not invent all these melodies themselves. The oldest of them were presumably popular melodies, to which in very early times semi-religious songs were sung at solstice celebrations and other national festivals, and yet others may date back as far as that noisy music with which pre-brahmanical wizard-priests not unlike the magicians, shamans and medicine-men of the primitive peoples—accompanied their wild songs and rites.¹ Traces of this popular origin of the sāman-melodies are seen already in the above-mentioned stobhas or shouts of joy, and especially in the fact that the melodies of the Sāmaveda were looked upon as possessing magic power even as late as in brahmanical times.² There is a ritual-book belonging to the Sāmaveda, called Sāmavidhāna-Brāhmaṇa, the second part of which is a regular handbook of magic, in which the employment of various Sāmans for magic purposes is taught. We may also see a survival of the connection of the Sāman-melodies with the pre-brahmanical popular belief and magic, in the fact that the brahmanical law-books teach that the recitation of the Ṛgveda and the Yajurveda must be interrupted as soon as the sound of a sāman is heard. Especially distinct is the rule in Āpastamba's law book,³ where the barking of dogs, the braying of donkeys, the howling of wolves and jackals, the hooting of the owl, the sound of musical instruments, weeping, *and the tone of sāmans* are enumerated as sounds at which the Veda-study must be interrupted.