What is the speciality of mAdhyandina shAkhA?

Question

MAdhyandina samhita is the currently surviving most used samhita of shukla Yajurveda.

This is the most prevalent way of chanting the shukla Yaju samhita.

What are its unique features?

How is it different from other shAkhAs?

Answer 1

MAdhyandina shakha has many unique features and some of them are totally different from other Vedic recitations.

It is the second slowest chanting after Samaveda shakha. Hence the chanting is clearly heard and every letter can be heard.

Veda chanting in some shakhas involve hasta sanket or hasta sanchalana (movement of hands to indicate swaras). Usually most of the hasta sanchalana is done by vertical movement of hands but only in MAdhyandina there is a unique horizontal movement too.

While chanting some words are pronounced differently than actual for example syllable ष (ṣa) as ख (kha).

Sometimes letter य as ज. And usually the letter व in the beginning is pronounced double.

You can see most of these features in this sample video of chanting