36 The Religion of the Veda

on the development of Hindu religions to the really great results which they eventually reach.

The Same-Veda is of all the Vedas the least clear as regards its origin and purpose. As :1 literary pro. duction it is almost entirely secondary and negative. The Sz‘mm~Vudu is interesting chiefly, liecnusc it is the Veda of music. In addition it contuinssmncmriginnl practices to which tradition has attached a number of legends unknown in the other Vetlic scllools. There are no connected hymns in this Veda, only more or less detached verses, borrowed in the main from the Rig-Veda. Even the sense of these verses is subordinated to the music to which they are set. The verses are grouped in strcphes which, when accompanied by their music, are known as .m'7Iui;zz‘, “melodies.” The nimzzn-stanzas are preserved in three forms. First, in the Rig-Veda, as orclinary poetry accented in the usual way, and not accompan- ied by melodies. They are contained mostly in the first fifty‘ hymns of the first book, and in Books viii and ix. Most of these stanzas are composed in the metre gdyatri, or in strophes known as pmgit/m, which are compounded of gdyrztri and _7'a_4mli verse- lines. Both the words gay/atri and pragdt/ta are derived from the verb gai, “sing,” and show that the stanzas and strophes composed in these metres were from the start intended to be sung.