Ved Vrind (priesters uit Varanasi)

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Ved Vrind (priesters uit Varanasi) · Ved Vrind is a group of priests from Varanasi, one of the holiest cities of Hinduism, on the Ganges, who recite the Vedas. No source was found about the group itself, so this text mainly describes the tradition they continue. The Rigveda is one of the oldest sacred texts of India. It consists of hymns that for centuries were not written down but passed on orally from teacher to pupil. The correct pronunciation and pitch of every syllable are regarded as essential.

Music and breakthrough

To preserve the text without error, various ways of reciting it arose, the paath. In the Samhita Paath the text is sung in its normal, continuous form. The Ghana Paath is much more complicated: words are repeated back and forth in a fixed order and interlocked with one another, so that every part of the hymn sounds several times and a mistake is noticed at once. It is an extremely precise memory system.

Influence

The sound is that of a single voice, with a small range of notes, sung in a regular rhythm and without accompaniment. There is no melody in the ordinary sense, but a fixed pattern of high and low sounds. In School of Rock, two recordings from 2015 belong to the oldest forms of sung music that are still passed on as a living tradition.

Listening

• 
  Samhita Paath - Rigveda · Ved Vrind (priesters uit Varanasi), 2015
• 
  Ghana Paath - Rigveda · Ved Vrind (priesters uit Varanasi), 2015

See also

• Vedic chant