The Pāvamāna Kāṇḍa · Chapter Overview
From The Sāmaveda — The Veda That Is Sung, taught by Acharya T Krishnatrey. This lesson is free to read.
<pre data-block="statement"> The Pāvamāna Kāṇḍa is the last division of the Pūrvārcika's main body — 119 verses, numbers 467 to 585, closing the Chandas Ārcika before the forest songs begin. Its name is a participle. Pavamāna, from √pū, means "purifying itself, flowing clear" — soma straining through the woollen filter into the pitcher. Nearly every verse here comes from Ṛgveda maṇḍala 9, the one maṇḍala whose entire deity is Soma Pavamāna. And soma matters to the Sāmaveda more than to any other Veda, because the Sāmaveda IS the liturgy of the soma sacrifice. These verses are chanted by the udgātṛ priests as the Pavamāna stotras — at the morning pressing, at midday, at the third — sung while the juice is actually running through the filter. That is worth holding onto as you read. Sound, liquid and purification are not three metaphors for each other here. They are one act, happening at once. Twelve mantras follow. Five read differently from the Ṛgveda, and one of those differences changes a god into a guardian. </pre>