Several branches of Vedic study took on the Samaveda, though its commentarial tradition never quite matched the vast exegeses devoted to the Rigveda. By and large, what survives are technical treatises on pronunciation and ritual usage, rather than sweeping theological glosses.

1. Samaveda Prātiśākhyas
   • Kauthuma Prātiśākhya and Rānāyanīya Prātiśākhya stand out as phonetic handbooks.
   • They spell out exactly how each melody-laden syllable must be sung, down to accent, pitch and length.
   • Attributed in part to Panini’s school (for the Rānāyanīya), these phonology manuals are like ancient style-guides, ensuring that oral transmission stayed razor-sharp.

2. Samavidhāna Brahmana and Sadvimśa Brahmana
   • Both belong to the Vājasaneya Śākhā (Kauthuma recension), explaining why certain chants are assigned to specific rites—marriage, coronation, royal consecration.
   • Rather than philosophical meanderings, these texts zero in on ritual choreography and the special force believed to dwell in each note.

3. Yāska’s Nirukta (c. 5th–4th century BCE)
   • Primarily a roots-and-meanings guide, it often cites rare Samaveda words to pin down their etymology.
   • Offers snippets of cultural context—festivals, deities, even the occasional hymn fragment—to illustrate linguistic points.

4. Patañjali’s Mahābhāṣya (2nd century BCE)
   • While chiefly a commentary on Pāṇini’s grammar, it peppers in Samaveda examples to clarify tricky sandhi rules or accent shifts.
   • Feels a bit like overhearing a language-nerd casually dropp ing song lines to make a grammatical point.

5. Later Medieval Voices
   • Śāyaṇācārya’s 14th-century gloss on the Samaveda didn’t reinvent the wheel but preserved older interpretations, setting down melodies in Devanāgarī script for posterity.
   • Modern digital projects—such as the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute’s Online Vedic Corpus—now bring these millennia-old chants to anyone with a Wi-Fi connection.

These exegeses, thin on narrative drama but rich in ritual precision, keep alive the idea that every rise and fall of a Samaveda note carries age-old power. Today’s chant aficionados still lean on those same phonetic play-books, proof that some traditions never skip a beat.