Samavaya
(“inherence”) Fundamental category
in the worldview of the Nyaya-
Vaisheshika philosophical school.
This school conceives of the world as
made up of atomistic parts, which are
connected to form larger things. The
fundamental function of samavaya is
as a subtle glue to connect various
things: wholes and their parts, sub-
stances and their attributes, motions
and the things that move, and general
properties and their particular
instances. It also connects both plea-
sure and pain to the Self. Thus
samavaya is the fundamental thing
holding the universe together. The
philosophical problems raised by the
idea of inherence—particularly the
claim that inherence was one single
principle, and not a collection of
things—were ultimately responsible
for the rise of Navyanyaya school,
which attempted to explain these rela-
tionships in a more sophisticated way.
Sama Veda
Traditionally considered the second of
the four Vedas, the oldest and most
authoritative Hindu religious texts. The
Sama Veda is a collection of hymns,
arranged for singing as one of the com-
ponents of the Vedic sacrifices (yajna).
While drawn mostly from the Rg Veda,
the singing patterns are far more elabo-
rate than the simple chanting generally
associated with the Rg Veda. Thus it is
believed that the Sama Veda developed
later than the Rg Veda.Sambandar
(7th c.) One of the earliest of the
Nayanars, a group of sixty-three south-
ern Indian poet-saints who were devo-
tees (bhakta) of the god Shiva. Along
with their contemporaries the Alvars,
who were devotees of Vishnu, the
Nayanars spearheaded the revitalization
of Hindu religion through their passion-
ate devotion (bhakti) to a personal god,
conveyed in hymns sung in the Tamil
language. Along with his contemporarySamavaya
The four Vedas in Sanskrit. The Sama Veda is the second of the four Vedas.