आर्षेयकल्पः- Arseyakalpa of Masaka with the Commentary of Varadaraja (An Old and Rare Book)

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The Arseyakalpa of Samaveda is now being brought out for the first time with the commentary of Varadaraja. This is a major basic work of great importance in Srauta-literature in general and Saman technical works in particular. The commentary of Varadaraja with his very in-formative Upodghata dealing, in detail, with the Jyotistoma and Vyudha-Dvadasaha sacrifices has enhanced the importance and reference-value of this already important major treatise in Srauta-literature. Varadaraja, a Sri-Vaisnava, who must have lived in early 16th century, any way before Srinivasa, the commentator of the Ksudrakalpa, was a great ritual authority. This commentary of Varadaraja on the Arseyakalpa read with his Dasatayi on the Pratiharasutra, which he wrote before he took up the present work, would reveal the depth of his knowledge and vastness of his learning of this most abstruse branch of Vedic discipline.

The first edition of this important text by W. Caland in Roman script, with an informative Introduction and valuable notes in German, was published at Leipzig, in 1908.

The edition of Arseyakalpa was prepared by me before I left Tirupati in August, 1970. For this I have utilized 13 Mss. and the said edition of Caland. I am very grateful to the authorities of the libraries who readily lent me their valuable Mss. for my work. Shri R. Santana Sastriar, a veteran Samavedist of Ammal Agraharam, Tiruvaiyaru, Tamil Nadu, supplied me with a neatly made out transcript of a Ms. of Arseyakalpa from his possession. Dr. Michael Witzel, of Tubingen, Germany, who has been doing extremely valuable work for preservation of Mss. and also doing research in the field of Vedio culture at Kathmandu, Nepal, readily responding to my request sent me the English version of Caland's Introduction to the Arseyakalpa written in German. It is always a pleasure to express my continuing gratitude to the above scholars who have been showing keen interest in the progress of my text-editing project. I also appreciate with pleasure the assistance I received from Shri Trilochan Singh Bindra and Shri Dev Raj Sharma of the Research Section of V.V.B.I.S. &1.S. in the arduous task of correcting the proofs. My gratitude is due, in full measure, also to the Management of the V. V. R. Institute for accepting this work for publication and to the V.V.R.I. Press for the care that has been taken in its neat printing.

I have not added the glossary of technical terms to this volume for the reason that the majority of such terms have been included in the detailed glossary appended to my edition of the Ksudrakalpa (V.V.B.I.S. & I.S., Panjab University, Hoshiarpur, 1974). The Arseyakalpa is the 15th work so far brought out by me in Samavedic literature. The Puspasutra with three commentaries prepared by me as early as in 1968 is yet to be sent to the press. I hope to do it very soon. The work, as contemplated by me, on my text-editing project is making satisfactory progress. I am confident, I would be able to complete this project with the grace of God, as per schedule, and thus discharge my indebtedness to the Vedic Rsis. I now end this Preface in the words of Varadaraja, the commentator, प्रीयतां पुरुषोत्तमः.

The Arseyakalpa gives the kiptis of stomas which are to be sung in different Soma sacrifices, lasting from one day to thousand years. It is an important work in Saman technical literature particularly pertaining to Soma rituals. A thorough knowledge of Soma rituals is indispensable for the wider and deeper study of Srauta literature at large, whichever Veda and school the area might belong to. The Institution of Soma sacrifices, unlike the Agnihotra and Isti, pervades the entire range of all the three Vedas even though the Srauta-sutra may vary depending on the Yajamana professing to adhere to a particular school of Vedic recension. The teams of priests specialised in different Vedas and the supervisory staff including the Sadasya and Brahman, learned in all the three Vedas and in the wider area of sacrificial rituals, collectively share, along with the Yajamana, the responsibility for successful completion of the Soma sacrifices for which they are engaged. Thus the Soma sacrifices by their very nature occupy a dominating and all-pervasive position in the Vedic rituals. The Brahmanas and the Srauta sutras, not only of the Samaveda but also of other Vedas, do speak of the Soma sacrifices and have indeed included in their area of study a large number of major Soma sacrifices. Nevertheless, the Arseyakalpa and Ksudrakalpa with their very long list of Soma sacrifices, easily the largest in a single Vedic School, in the course of enumeration of Saman chants enlighten our knowledge of this obscure field of Vedic discipline disclosing many subtle ditails not found or not expressly made known elsewhere.

The Arseyakalpa (Ars.K.) presents a dry list of melodies and Saman verses which are sung in relation to different sacrifices It begins with Gavam ayana, the basic dealt with therein. form of sacrificial session, a Sattra of 361 days, and then it treats the Ekahas, the Soma-rituals mostly of one day duration, the Ahinas, the Soma-rituals lasting from 2 to 11 days and lastly the Sattras, the Soma-rituals lasting from 12 days to one thousand years. The last chapter mentions some of the Sattras lasting for a fantastically long period, from one year to 1000 years. In the order of arrangement of sacrifices the Ars.K. closely follows the Tandya-Brahmana. There are, however, four bewitching sacrifices, namely, iyena, isu, samdamša and vajra, all belonging to the category of one-day-Soma rituals, which are found not in the Tandya-Brahmana, but in its supplement Sadvimsa. It may be noted in this connection that the Ars.K. in respect of arrangement and description of these sarcifices, does not follow the Sadvimsa but adheres to the Yajurveda where the syena appears after the sadyaskra, the isu after the bṛhaspatisava, and the samdamsa and vajra at the end of the Ekahas.

The ganas prescribed for application in Soma-rituals are, as a rule, from the Uha and Rahasya books of Saman melodies,

but there are a few exceptions noted to this rule where the ganas are found cited from the Gramegeya and Aranyegeya. The Ars.K. tells us which melodies built on which verses are to be sung in different stotras pertaining to various Soma-rituals treated therein. It cites the pratika or the first line of a verse, but it is immediately understood that we have to take the trea that begins with that pratika or chant the verse or group of verses commencing with that line cited therein. There are melodies which are built on more or less than a trea and in such instances the Ars.K. clearly guides us saying the number of seas or part thereof or the particular rea from a group of reas that are to be sung in such contexts. There are places where the Ars.K. is silent as to the number of reas to be sung on a given melody, since it is assumed that a reader, who would always be one knowing the rituals and specialised in the field, would at once understand it from the context and also from the indications that often follow, e.g., गौरीवित-मनुष्टुभि. The melody of gaurivita, if specially mentioned as in anustubh metre, will always be based on a single rea. Very often the Ars.K. expressly says एकस्याम् अध्यास्यायाम्, अनुरूपः, प्रतिपत्, etc.-all indicating a particular verse or a part thereof from a trea. Whenever the Ars.K. feels that the Kalpa of a ritual already described by the Tand.Br. is enough and that there is no necessity of its repetition, it skips over it by saying that क्लृप्तः, e.g., क्लुप्तो ज्योतिष्टोमोऽतिराजोऽषोडशिकः. The commentator, however, in such places gives the Klptis and necessary description of such rituals and thus bridges the gap. While Agnihotra, Isţi and Pasuyaga are the legitimate provinces of the Bgveda and Yajurveda, and are described, in greater detail, in the relevant literature the major Soma sacrifices representing the four Jyotistoma-samsthas and the Vajapeya, Rajasuya, Asvamedha, Dvadasahas and the Sattras are dealt with at length in the corps of Srauta literature. In these Soma sacrifices the Rgvedic (होतृगण) and Yajurvedic (अध्वर्युगण) priests have their own functions, besides their primary duties such as chanting of mantras from their respective Vedas at the prescribed time and place in the course of performance of sacrifices. The Saman priests (उद्‌गातृगण), on the other hand, are primarily concerned in singing Saman chants mostly sitting near the post of a fig tree in the sadas in the manner prescribed in the Srauta-sutras. The Kalpasutra of Samaveda assumes the responsibility to describe what is called औद्द्यान, duties and functions of उद्‌द्यातृगण in respect of these Soma sacrifices.

**Contents and Sample Pages**