The Puspasutra: A Pratisakhya of the Samaveda.

• Author: Howard, Wayne
• Position: Book Review

The Puspasutra: A Pratisakhya of the Samaveda. Translated by G. H. TARLEKAR. 2 volumes. Kalamulasastra Series, vol. 33. New Delhi: INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL CENTRE FOR THE ARTS; Delhi: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS. 2001. Pp. xxxii + 725. Rs 1550.

The Puspasutra (PS) is the major phonetic treatise belonging to the Kauthuma-Ranayaniya branch of the Samaveda. (1) It owes its existence to the obsession of the ancient samavedic seers with the distinction between prakrti and vikrti--between the basic form of the chants (samans) as they appear in the first two chantbooks (ganas), the Gramageyagana ("Village Chantbook") and Aranyakagana ("Forest Chantbook"), and the derivative form made manifest in the Uhagana ("Chantbook of Modified [Melodies]") and the Uhyagana ("Chantbook of Modified, Secret [Melodies]"), "uhya" being a compression of an original "uharahasya." The Gramageyagana and Aranyakagana are called collectively the Purvagana ("First Chantbook") or Prakrtigana ("Principal Chantbook"), the Uha- and Uhya-ganas the Uttaragana ("Subsequent Chantbook").

Not only does the Uttaragana present selected Purvagana chants in altered form, its organization is completely different from that of the Gramageyagana and Aranyakagana. The arrangement of the Uttaragana is according to the mandates of the vedic Soma rituals. Thus the Uha- and Uhya-ganas are each divided into seven sections in order to comply with rituals of varying duration: dasaratra, samvatsara, ekaha, ahina, sattra, prayascitta, and ksudra.

The source verses on which the chants of the four ganas are based form the arcika ("collection of rc"). Reflecting the twofold division of the ganas into purva ("first") and uttara ("subsequent"), the arcika too is binary in shape. The Purvarcika gives texts for the chants of the Gramageyagana and, to some extent, the Aranyakagana (many chants of this gana draw their texts from the Aranyakasamhita, which is attached to the end of the Purvarcika). The verses of the Uttararcika, on the other hand, are arranged ordinarily in groups of three (trca) or two (pragatha). When sung as saman, the pragatha is normally changed into a trca by an overlapping process. Usually the first verse of a trca is traceable to the Purvarcika, and this source (yoni) rc and the two verses that follow it are sung to the same melody as they are transformed into samans. The trca, when adapted as saman, furnishes the musical material for a stotra (chant complex); the musical setting of each verse of the trca is called a stotriya. Some stotras are based upon several trcas and require simply for the singers to sing the stotriyas one after the other, without...