Hymns of the Samaveda

This is the translator's preface and opening hymns from R.T.H. Griffith's 1893 English translation of the Samaveda, the third of the ancient Hindu Vedas and the one devoted to liturgical chant. The Samaveda is not an original composition but a specialized ritual anthology: its hymns are drawn almost entirely from the Rigveda, excerpted and rearranged to serve as chant-texts for Udgatar priests performing Soma sacrifices, then further modified in performance through syllable prolongation, repetition, and prescribed modulations recorded in separate Song-books. Griffith notes a philologically significant point — that the Samaveda's variant readings sometimes appear older or more authentic than the corresponding Rigveda passages, suggesting it preserves independent textual traditions rather than merely derivative corruptions. The preface situates the translation within nineteenth-century Sanskrit scholarship, crediting Benfey's 1848 critical edition and Pandit Satyavrata Samasrami's 1874–78 commentary edition as its primary sources. The hymns that follow, addressed overwhelmingly to Agni (the fire deity and sacrificial intermediary), illustrate the collection's liturgical character — repetitive, formulaic praise designed for oral performance rather than private reading. The work is most useful for scholars of Vedic religion, comparative mythology, or the history of Sanskrit philology; general readers will find the hymns highly repetitive without the ritual context Griffith's preface only partially supplies.

Hymns of the Samaveda

Related pages View as graph →