36. Chanting of Vedic Mantras

The positive role of music would be inevitable in this regard because of the natural intimacy of music and emotions. The three streams of expression of the esoteric knowledge encoded in the Vedas are termed as Veda Trayi. the contents are divided into four Vedas that are classifies according to the type of mantras. Broadly speaking, the Riga Veda consists of the mantras of the hidden knowledge and prayers of - the eternal powers of thee and the genesis and expansion of divine virtues. The Yajura Veda consists of the mantras of the philosophy, science and the methods of performing Yajnas. The Sama Veda is a collection of the mantras containing the secrets of swaras, music and the chanting patterns for all the Vaidika hymns. the Atharva Beda presents the mantras of the ultimate spiritual knowledge of the Supreme - the Brahm Jnana. The Veda trayi classification according to the possible modes of expressions of mantras is found to be more suitable for describing the associated Sadhana practices in the Vedic science of spirituality. Of these, the stream of knowledge pertaining to the rhythmic enunciation and chanting of the specific collections of mantras in the Sama Veda is of predominant significance for the human society, as it directly deals with the science of emotions, which hold the essence of life.

The ancient Grammarian and founder of the science and philosophy of yoga, Maharsi Patanjali mentions of thousand branches of the schools on Sama Veda, as he refers to 'Sahastra Vartma Sama Vedah', several scholars of the later ages also affirm this. The names of all the thousand branches are not available in any of the Puranas or other shastrika scriptures available today, and some critics even interpret the word 'Vartma' above to simply indicate different musical patterns of Sama Gayan (collective chanting). Still, while considering the kpotential of numerous creations - in terms of the musical aspects of Sabda and Nada - in Sama, the existence of over thousand varieties of the Sama Samhita appears to be quite logical.

It is unfortunate that most of the ancient branches of Sama Veda are no longer seen. As per the available versions of Prapamch Hradaya, Divyavadana, Caranvyuha and Jaimini Grahya Suttra……, etc, only thirteen schools of Sama Veda seem to have been active in the present era. the names of the corresponding acaryas are remembered at the time of performing the ritual of Samatarpana. The schools of only three of these thirteen acaryas have been found to be having disciples in the recent past. Brief introduction of these three branches is give below:

It is interesting to note that - although the names, pracya (meaning, eastern) and Udicya (meaning, northern), of the most ancient branches correspond to their geographical locations of the places of their origin, no school on Sama Veda is now in existence in the eastern or northern parts of Nepal. Whereas, some scholarly activities on the available schools on Sama Veda are still alive in the Western and Southern states. Noted among these are - the Kauthuma School, Ranayaniya School and Jaiminiya School.

Study of the ancient scriptures like the Puranas and the Brahmanas show that the original number of the mantras and the Sama ganas in the Sama Veda was very much larger than those available in the samhitas of the schools of the modern era. For instance, the satapath Brahmana mentions of four thousand brahati mantras ……………………..