History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.234

v7.c93.234

Mantras are classified under three heads viz. Ṛk, Sāman and Yajus. These are defined in P M S. II. 1, 35-37; the name ṛk is applied to those ¹⁹⁸¹ mantras that are divided into feet, metrical pādas (often) based on the meaning. Sāman is the name applied to Vedic mantras that are sung. It has been established in P. M. S. VII. 2. 1-21 and IX. 2. 1-2 that the mantra ¹⁹⁸² texts are not called Sāman but only the music, that *gīti* is an action which manifests various tunes owing to the internal effort made by the singer and in order to bring about the musical effect the singer has to resort to modifications of the letters of the ṛk, to disjunction (of parts of it), to omission (of a letter), to repetition, to pauses, to ¹⁹⁸³ *stobha*. In VII. 2. 1-21 the PMS establishes that the words '*Rathantara-sāman*', '*Bṛhat-sāman*' refer only to the music and not to the *ṛk* or basic text set to music. Yajus means those Vedic mantras that are neither *ṛk* nor *sāman*. There is another word '*nigada*' applied to certain mantras that are addressed to others as directions to do certain acts and are uttered loudly such as '*agnīdagnīn vihara*', '*prokṣaṇīrāsādaya*', '*idhmābarhirupasādaya*'. They are Yajus (i. e. in prose), the only difference being that they are loudly uttered (in order that the persons to whom they are addressed may hear them), while ordinary Yajus is uttered inaudibly. Vide P. M. S. II. 1. 38-45 for discussion on Nigadas and Mai. S. III. 6. 5 for '*uccair-ṛcā kriyata uccaih sāmopāṁśu yajuṣā*'.