PREFACE.

THE Sâmaveda The "Veda of Melodies" or Holy Songs, or Veda of Holy Songs, third in the usual order of enumeration of the three Vedas The foundational scriptures of Hinduism, ranks next in sanctity and liturgical liturgical: relating to the formal rites of public worship importance to the Rigveda or Veda of Recited Praise. Its Sanhitâ The "Collection" or metrical portion of the text, or metrical portion, consists chiefly of hymns to be chanted by the Udgâtar Udgâtar: the specific priest responsible for chanting during sacrifices priests at the performance of those important sacrifices in which the juice of the Soma A sacred plant whose juice was used in Vedic rituals to induce a state of inspiration or immortality plant, clarified and mixed with milk and other ingredients, was offered in libation A ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a deity to various deities. The Collection is made up of hymns, portions of hymns, and detached verses, taken mainly from the Rigveda, transposed and re-arranged, without reference to their original order, to suit the religious ceremonies in which they were to be employed. In these compiled hymns there are frequent variations, of more or less importance, from the text of the Rigveda as we now possess it, which variations, although in some cases they are apparently explanatory, seem in others to be older and more original than the readings of the Rigveda. In singing, the verses are still further altered by prolongation, repetition and insertion of syllables, and various modulations, rests, and other modifications prescribed, for the guidance of the officiating priests, in the Gânas or Song-books. Two of these manuals, the Grâmageyagâna, or Congregational Literally "songs to be sung in the village", and the Âranyagâna or Forest Song-book Songs intended for the ascetic or secret study in the wilderness, follow the order of the verses of Part I. of the Sanhitâ, and two others,