Samaveda

The third Veda, made up almost entirely of verses drawn from the Rigveda and rearranged for chanting by the Udgatar priest during Soma sacrifices, with only a small portion of unique material. Its distinct contribution is musical rather than textual: three regional recensions (Kauthuma, Ranayaniya, Jaiminiya) preserve different melodic traditions (saman) for largely the same underlying verses, making it the traditional root of Indian classical music as much as a scripture. Most of its borrowed verses are drawn from the Soma hymns of Rigveda books 8 and 9, reorganized into two collections, the Purvarchika and the Uttararchika, whose sequence follows the order of ritual performance rather than the Rigveda's own arrangement, since the text exists to be sung, not read.