Which verses of the Sama Veda are unique to itself and are NOT taken from the Rig Veda?
Different websites say different amounts of verses are exclusive, but they all say less than 100.
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2As Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said, we are here to eat the mangoes, not to count the leaves on the mango trees in the orchard. Enjoy those portions of the vedas we have!– Swami VishwanandaCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 5:48
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There are 4 vedas, one of them being the Sama veda. Each veda is in turn sub-divided into a Work part and a Knowledge part. The Work part of each veda is further sub-divided into Samhita parts, Brahmana parts, and Aranyaka parts. The Knowledge part of each veda are known as the Upanishads. Many scholars believe that some of the ancient vedas have not survived to today; and portions of some of the existing vedas have been lost over time. So the Sama veda that we have today may have had other portions that have not survived over time. The vedas were originally not written down, lineages of brahm– Swami VishwanandaCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 5:48
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The vedas were originally not written down, lineages of brahmin priests memorized portions and passed on to their lineages their portions of the vedas. If a lineage met with some calamity, the portion of a veda that they knew exclusively could have been permanently lost. There is repetition of the same verses in different vedas. This is not unique to the Sama veda. We will never know if the original Sama veda consisted of more parts and verses or not. It is fruitless speculation.– Swami VishwanandaCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 5:48
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But are the verses that are not related to the Rig Veda, are they the first 100 (rough guess), or the last 100, or just mixed throughout the Sama Veda?– Jake PCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 14:50
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5Was just curious. Seems nobody actually knows.– Jake PCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 16:37
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3 Answers
One verse of the Sama Veda Samhita that is not present in the Rig Veda is verse 527, which is near the Aranya Archikah, Aranya Kandam section as you can see here:
ahamasmi prathamajā ṛtasya pūrvaṃ devebhyo amṛtasya nāma |
yo mā dadāti sa idevamāvadahamannamannamadantamadmi ||I have been created before the creation of devtas and nobody can survive without consuming me. Those who donate me in Yagna etc., I protect them and bestow them with the result of pious deeds [punya].
This Richa is the basis of the Purushagati Saman, which is chanted by Jivas after attaining Moksha as I discuss in my question and answer here. And although it's not found in the Rig Veda, it is found in the Taittiriya Brahmana of the Yajur Veda; see my question here.
As I find more such Sama Veda-exclusive verses I may expand my answer.
EDIT: This PDF says "There are only the 1875 Saama Veda [mantras] that are unique to it; rest of them are mostly from Rg Veda with minor verbal differences and to music."
answered Apr 4, 2017 at 5:15
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1This PDF says "There are only the 1875 Saama Veda [mantras] that are unique to it; rest of them are mostly from Rg Veda ROFL Please accept my down vote for spreading such rumors. The total no of mantras in SV Samhita is 1875 only. This answer is completely wrong needless to say.– RickrossCommented Apr 20, 2017 at 5:07
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1If you can show me a reliable source that there are no mantras exclusive to the Sama Veda, I'd be more than happy to see it. But I don't think that's right, considering that the "ahamasmi prathamaja" mantra does not occur in the Rig Veda. Commented Apr 20, 2017 at 5:12
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Don't worry what i am saying is correct. But i want to remove the downvote coz i don't like DV ing at all. So what's the way given that i have already casted the vote? @Keshav– RickrossCommented Apr 20, 2017 at 6:19
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@Rickross You can remove your vote if the post has been edited. So I just edited my post. In any case, I'd appreciate it if you can give some source for the claim that there aren't any Sama Veda-exclusive verses, and explain how that comports with the Ahamasmi Prathamaja verse I referenced. Commented Apr 20, 2017 at 6:27
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@keshav srinivasana i think you have missunderstood something i get to wikipedia article and there is written: " The Samaveda consists of 1,549 unique verses, taken almost entirely from Rigveda, except for 75 verses. The largest number of verse come from Books 9 and 8 of the Rig Veda. " — en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaveda so there are 75 unique verses. Commented Feb 4, 2018 at 14:32
There are no such mantras which are in Sama Veda but not in the Rig Veda. That is, the text of all the Sama Veda mantras are already present in the Rig Veda.
The whole Vedas consist only of three types of mantras viz: the Riks, the Yajus & the Samans.
Rik
A Rik mantra has a metrical structure which is determined by the number of syllables in it. The number of syllables determine the metre (chandah) part of the mantra. Few examples of metres are Gayatri (composed of 24 syllables), Ushnik (28 syllables), Anushtup (32 syllables) etc.
A typical example of a Rik is the most famous Veda mantra called the Gayatri mantra of Viswamitra.
Yajus
A Yajus will be in a short rhythmic prose. A typical example of such a mantra is the most famous mantra of Lord Shiva viz "namah shivaya" ( TS 4.5.8.11 ).
Saman
The text of a Saman mantra will be a Rik mantra, only difference being is in the method of chanting it. A Saman is chanted in a more elaborate way, more like singing.
For example, the number of mantras in Rig Veda ( Shakalya Shakha ) is 10,552.
And, the number of mantras in Sama Veda is 1875.
And, the text of all these 1875 mantras are already found in the Rig Veda samhita.
Some additional info regarding the distribution of Riks, Yajus and Samans among the four Vedas:
1- All the mantras that are present in Rig Vedas are Riks.
2- Atharva Veda has mostly Riks, but it also has a small number of Yajus mantras. The total number of mantras in Atharva Veda is 5038.
3- All the Riks are not present in the Rig Veda itself. That is, there are Rik mantras that are found in other Vedas but not in Rig Veda.
For example, TS of Yajur Veda has in all 4773 mantras. Of which, 3248 are Yajus and the remaining 1525 are Riks. And, among these 1525 Riks, 862 are found in the Rig Veda samhita. The remaining 663 Riks are not to be found in the Rig Veda.
So, not all Riks are found in the Rig Veda.
A rough Venn diagram indicating the overlapping among Vedas is as given below :
Abbreviations used :
TS- Taitarriya Smahita of Yajur Veda.
TS 4.5.8.11- TS, Kanda 4, Prapathaka 5, Anuvaka 8, Mantra 11.
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5It is true that all Samans are based on Richas, but not all Samans are based on Richas found in the Rig Veda. The Purushagati Saman, which is sung by Muktas after they attain Moksha, is based on a Richa found in the Samaveda Samhita and in the Taittiriya Brahmaja of the Yajur Veda, but it is not found in the Rig Veda Samhita. See my question here: hinduism.stackexchange.com/q/6582/36 (By the way, you may be wondering why a mantra would be included in a Brahmana rather than a Samhita. That's because of the odd structure of the Krishna Yajur Veda, where mantras and injunctions are mixed.) Commented Apr 3, 2017 at 17:36
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@KeshavSrinivasan No.. like my answer says all the Sama mantras are present in the Rig Veda..– RickrossCommented Apr 4, 2017 at 4:23
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1No, that's not correct. You can look for the next thousand years in the Rig Veda Samhita and you won't find the "Aham asmi prathamaja..." richa that the Purushagati Saman is based on. Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 4:58
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Its futile to argue with u guys..i am quoting from authoritative books..@KeshavSrinivasan– RickrossCommented Apr 4, 2017 at 4:58
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6
I found this question through searching while I myself was looking for the answer. Since then I found a book with an index of Samaveda mantras not found in the Rigveda so I came back and made an account to share with you. This book is called The Samaveda Samhita, Text with English Translation & Commentary, Mantra, & Names Index Etc. Translated and written by Ralph Griffith, in 1893 I believe. There are 77 unique Samaveda mantras in this index if I've counted correctly.
