Which Veda is considered the origin of Indian classical music?
- A.Rigveda
- B.Samaveda
- C.Yajurveda
- D.Atharvaveda
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the Samaveda. Its verses are largely borrowed from the Rigveda but are arranged to be sung to fixed melodies during sacrifices, and those melodies are the earliest record of musical notation in India, which is why the Samaveda is called the root of Indian classical music.
Option A, the Rigveda, is a collection of hymns recited in praise of the gods rather than sung to a tune, and it is remembered as the oldest Veda with 1,028 hymns. Option C, the Yajurveda, gives the formulas a priest utters while performing a sacrifice and is the only Veda written partly in prose. Option D, the Atharvaveda, contains charms, spells, cures and material on everyday life, and was the last collection to be accepted as a Veda. Papers often place all four together, so fix one identifying word to each: hymns, melody, formula and charm.
Read the full article: Vedic Age: Rigveda, Society and Later Vedic Changes
Practice Questions
View allThe Battle of Ten Kings, the Dasarajna, was fought on the banks of which river?
- A.Vitasta
- B.Shutudri
- C.Parushni
- D.Asikni
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The seventh mandala of the Rigveda describes how Sudas, the king of the Bharata tribe, defeated a confederacy of ten tribes on its banks, and the battle is the clearest political event recorded in the whole of Rigvedic literature.
Read the full explanation →The Purusha Sukta, the hymn that first mentions the four varnas, occurs in which mandala of the Rigveda?
- A.Third mandala
- B.Seventh mandala
- C.Ninth mandala
- D.Tenth mandala
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The Purusha Sukta describes the sacrifice of the cosmic being from whose parts the brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra are said to have come, and it is the first statement of the fourfold varna order.
Read the full explanation →Which god is invoked in the largest number of hymns in the Rigveda?
- A.Agni
- B.Indra
- C.Varuna
- D.Prajapati
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He is the god of rain and of war, called Purandara, the breaker of forts, and the largest number of Rigvedic hymns is addressed to him, which matches a people whose life turned on rainfall and on cattle raids.
Read the full explanation →In the Rigveda, which river is described as the naditama, the holiest of rivers?
- A.Ganga
- B.Sindhu
- C.Saraswati
- D.Yamuna
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The Rigveda praises it as the naditama, the best or holiest of rivers, and treats it as a goddess as well as a stream.
Read the full explanation →The sabha and the samiti are described as the twin daughters of Prajapati in which text?
- A.Rigveda
- B.Samaveda
- C.Atharvaveda
- D.Satapatha Brahmana
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The phrase is quoted so often in examinations because it fixes both the names of the assemblies and the text they are described in.
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