Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c10.11

c10.11

**The Sāma Veda.** The *Udgātṛis* contributed some new elements, 78 out of 1,549 verses, to the Sāmaveda. The bulk of the verses of the Sāmaveda is taken out of the Rigveda and mostly from its Maṇḍalas viii and ix. These verses are arranged in the Sāmaveda in two parts: (1) the *Ārchika* of 585 single stanzas or *ṛiks*; (2) the *Uttarārchika* comprising 400 chants, mostly of three stanzas each. In the Sāmaveda the text is treated only as a means to an end, the learning of melodies. The student whose object was to be trained as an Udgātṛi priest in the schools of Sāmaveda had first to learn the melodies and this he could do with the aid of the *Ārchika* or the song-book where is given only the text of the first stanza of each song as an aid to the recollection of the tune. Here it is not usually the case, as in the west, that a verse is sung to a particular tune. It is the reverse: this or that melody (Sāman) is sung upon a particular stanza. Here the melody arises out of the *Ṛik* or stanza which is thus called the *yoni* of the melody. No doubt a stanza can be sung to various melodies, and one melody can be applied to different stanzas, but certain stanzas are marked out and fixed as the texts or *yonis* for certain melodies. The *Uttarārchika* gives the stanzas out of which are formed the *stotras* to be sung at the sacrifices, to the tunes which the *Ārchika* teaches.