Avatarika
एवं तावदाख्यायिकाया मन्ते सकलनृसिंहोपासनसंग्राहकान् मन्त्रराजनारासिंहानुष्टुभशब्दान् विज्ञाय तैरेव शब्दैः सकलोपासनां सृष्ट्यर्थं प्रजापत्यनुष्ठितां संगृह्य इदानीमविशेषेणानुष्ठाने प्राप्ते, तत्र तावत्साम्नः ऋगक्षराभिव्यञ्जकत्वात् अभिव्यञ्जकाभिव्यङ्ग्ययोरभिव्यञ्जकपूर्वकत्वात् साम्नश्च सर्ववेदश्रेष्ठत्वात्—'देवा वै नर्चि न यजुष्यश्रयन्त ते सामन्येवाश्रयन्त' इति श्रुतेः 'वेदानां सामवेदोऽस्मि' इति स्मृतेश्च, अस्य च सामराजत्वात् तदुपासनाया प्राप्तायां क्रमसूचनपूर्विकामाह—
In plain words
So now, at the end of the story, we have grasped the three words — 'king of mantras,' 'belonging to Narasiṃha,' 'in the ānuṣṭubh metre' — which between them hold the whole worship of Narasiṃha, and through those very words we have gathered up the whole of the worship Prajāpati once performed for the sake of creation. But the moment we turn to actually practicing it, before any order has been fixed, one thing comes first: the Sāman is what makes the syllables of the Ṛc audible at all, and between what reveals and what is revealed, the revealer always comes first — and besides, the Sāman is the finest of all the Vedas. Scripture itself says so: 'The gods found no refuge in the Ṛc, none in the Yajus — they took refuge in the Sāman alone.' And smṛti says, 'Of all the Vedas, I am the Sāmaveda.' And since this teaching belongs to the very sovereign of the Sāman, now that its practice is due, the text gives us a preliminary word about the order to follow —
Close to the Sanskrit
Thus, so far, at the end of the story [ākhyāyikā], having understood the words 'mantrarāja,' 'nārāsiṃha,' and 'ānuṣṭubha,' which comprehend the entire worship of Narasiṃha, and having, by those very words, summarized the entire worship as practiced by Prajāpati for the sake of creation — now, when it comes to the practice [of that worship] without [yet fixing] a distinction [of order], there, first, because the Sāman is that which manifests the syllables of the Ṛc, because between the manifester and the manifested the manifester comes first, and because the Sāman is the best of all the Vedas — as the śruti says, 'The gods indeed did not take refuge in the Ṛc, nor in the Yajus; they took refuge in the Sāman alone,' and as the smṛti says, 'Of the Vedas, I am the Sāmaveda' — and moreover because this [teaching] belongs to the sovereign of the Sāman, when its worship is thus due, [the text] states a preliminary [remark] indicating the order —