Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/53

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
The Veda
37

Secondly, they occur in the Sāma-Veda itself in a form called ārcika, that is, "collection of stanzas." This is a kind of libretto, or text-book containing the stanzas which are to be memorised for "making upon them," as the Hindus say, the sāman-melodies. Here also there is a system of accents, peculiar in its notation, but apparently still with reference to the unsung sāmans. In the third sāman-version, the Gānas[1] or song-books, we find the real sāmans as they are to be sung. Here not only the text but also the musical notes are given. Still this is not a complete sāman yet. In the middle of the sung stanzas certain phantastic exclamatory syllables are introduced, the so-called stobhas, such as om, hau, hai, hoyi, or him; and at the end of the stanzas certain concluding exclamations, the so-called nidhanas, such as atha, ā, īm, and sāt.[2] They remind us in a way of the Swiss and Tyrolese "yodels "which are introduced into the songs of these countries as a sort of cadenzas, intended to heighten the musical effect.

The Sāma-Veda is devoted a good deal to the worship of Indra, a blustering, braggart god, who

  1. ↑ The word gāna, again, is derived from the root gai, "sing."
  2. ↑ The Pancavinça Brāhmana relates that the poet Kanva was for a good while puzzled to find a nidhana for his sāman, until he heard a cat sneeze ash! Then he took ash for the nidhana of his sāman.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.