|
Three types of
mantras and four collections In the Vedic
books, there are three types of mantras, namely
Ŗk, Yajus
and Sāma. A verse with a
metre is Ŗk.
A prose verse without metre is
Yajus. A verse used for singing is
Sāman. The same text of verse, say in
RV (6.16.10), can be chanted as a Ŗk
mantra or as a Sāma mantra as in the
first verse of Sāmaveda.
Rigveda is the collection of all
Ŗks to be chanted.
Yajurveda is the collection of all
mantras useful in rituals; it includes all
Yajus mantrās and some mantras
in Rigveda. Similarly
Sāmaveda is made of all
Sāma verses.
Atharvaveda consists mainly of Ŗks
and some Yajus. All the four
collections are equally sacred.
Sāmaveda
and Rigveda
It was mentioned
that the texts of most of the Sāmaveda
verse came from Rigveda. The complete
recession of Rigveda available today
is Shākala. Of the 1875
mantrās, 1770 are in
Shākala recension
of Rigveda. Another 29 verses can be
traced to the mantras of the Khila
suktās of Rigveda
and some slightly modified versions of the mantras of RV. The
remaining 76 mantrās in
Sāmaveda presumably are from the
recensions of RV which are lost today.
The close
relationship between the Rigveda and
Sāmaveda are mentioned in several
upanishads like
Chāndogya. The famous
Bŗhadāranyaka
upanishad compares the relationship between these
two upanishads to that between a
husband and wife [Br. up. 6.4.20 and
Atharvaveda 14.2.71].
 |
