The Sama Veda - Ambrosia Society - AmbrosiaSociety.org

The Sama Veda

The Samaveda, or Veda of Holy Songs, third in the usual order of enumeration of the three Vedas, ranks next in sanctity and liturgical importance to the Rig Veda or Veda of Recited praise. Its Sanhita, or metrical portion, consists chiefly of hymns to be chanted by the Udgatar priests at the performance of those important sacrifices in which the juice of the Soma plant, clarified and mixed with milk and other ingredients, was offered in libation to various deities. The Collection is made up of hymns, portions of hymns, and detached verses, taken mainly from the Rig Veda, 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 Rig Veda 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 Rig Veda.

It is interesting to compare the Soma Pavamana Hymns in the Samaveda and the Rig Veda.

Sacred-texts Hymns of the Samaveda

Sacred-texts Rig Veda

Wikipedia Samaveda

Wikipedia Rig Veda