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   From: alt.fan.jai-maharaj@googlegroups.com   
      
   Forwarded post:   
      
   The Art of Writing in Ancient India   
      
   By Prasad Gokhale   
   December 15, 1994   
      
   The assumption that the ancient Hindus could not read or   
   write probably springs from the fact that no writing   
   material was excavated on Indian soil. That pictographs   
   await excavation in India does not undermine the   
   importance of literary evidence to the existence of   
   writing skills of the Vedic folks. Also, it is suggested   
   that no script was developed in RgVedic India since the   
   verb "likha-to write" is not mentioned in the Vedas.   
      
   RgVed is acclaimed as the oldest extant literature   
   available to humans. It is definitely older than the   
   Ramayan (atleast 5500 B.C) and some internal evidence   
   takes it as far as 23000 B.C. There are a number of   
   references in the RgVed which allude to the art of   
   writing. That the seers wanted to "inscribe, engrave"   
   words (on some material) itself points that they knew how   
   to write. One more verse (RgVed 1-164-39) states," In the   
   letters (akshara) of the verses of the Veda...". If the   
   RgVedic folks could not read or write, what then was the   
   necessity to develop and refering to "akshara - letters;   
   non-withering, permanent"? Also, there are a number of   
   compositional chandas (metres), lines in a metre and   
   specific number of words in a line available from the   
   RgVedic text. It will take a tremendous amount of mental   
   effort to compose and to commit to memory the vast amount   
   of lines with all the intricacies involved. Unless these   
   are reduced to writing and given a specific concrete   
   shape, it would not facilitate oral transmission. Yet   
   another verse (RgV 10-62-7) mentions cows being "marked"   
   by an "8-eight" which again shows that the ancients   
   possessed the art of writing. Also, RgVed 10-71-4 refers   
   to a language which can be "seen"; that is a script. If   
   there was no script, preferably the verb "to pronounce"   
   rather than "to inscribe/write" would have been utilized.   
   However, such a distinction has been made obviously   
   because a written form of language existed during that   
   time.   
      
   Even during the Mahabharat era the art of writing was   
   prevelant. The verb "lekhi (writing)" in all its forms   
   (lekhako, lekhani, etc.) appears numerous times in the   
   Mahabharat text (Aadi 1.77/78). On the arrows were   
   inscribed the names of specific persons to whom they   
   belonged. Distinction has been made between "to write"   
   and "to read" (Harivansha.50)  indicating "what was   
   written was being read". How could a text with a   
   monumental 100,000 verses could be composed, preserved   
   and transmitted through memory alone? This incredible   
   feat may have been performed by a few, but that does not   
   suggest that the art of writing was not developed. The   
   Atharvasheersha (from the Upanishads) symbolizes Shree   
   Ganesh as an "omkar", a combination of "g-aakar, m-   
   aakar". How can there be an "aakar - shape" to a syllable   
   only transmitted orally? The "omkar" is mentioned in the   
   Mahabharat text as well indicating that the art of   
   writing was prevalent during the Mahabharat times, that   
   is around 3100 B.C., as a continuing tradition since   
   remote antiquity.   
      
   The Mahabharat text (3100 B.C) contains quotes of Rishi   
   Vasistha of the Ramayanic Era (alteast 5500 B.C) on the   
   meaning of the "granth(a)" (manuscript), its value and   
   other literary attributes. Discussions on skills required   
   to writing and evaluating a "granth(a)" were already in   
   vogue during the Ramayanic era. How is this possible if   
   "writing" was not known in that era? The Yujurvedic   
   Taittiriya Samhita and also the Atharvaveda utilize the   
   word "likha (to write)", although not as ancient as the   
   RgVed, atleast are of the Ramayanic era. The art of   
   writing was known by ancient Vedic peoples since remote   
   times.   
      
   Inspite of the evidence presented above, it has been   
   continually stressed that the ancients passed on their   
   knowledge through oral tradition alone and no art of   
   writing was available -- the earlier part ofcourse is   
   probably true. On the deliberate stress given to oral   
   transmission, R.N. Dandekar remarks, "There is, indeed,   
   considerable circumstantial and inferential character   
   which enables us to perceive the existence of writing   
   even in the very early periods of Indian cultural history   
   .. It is true that the Veda has been handed dowm from   
   generation to generation through oral tradition. It must   
   not, however, be supposed that on that account, as is   
   often erroneously done, that the art of writing was   
   unknown in the early Vedic age. The practice of oral   
   transmission of Veda was adopted, not because written   
   copies of these texts were not available, but presumably   
   because it was believed that oral transmission alone was   
   more conducive to the preservation of the magicoreligious   
   potency and the formal protection of those arts. On the   
   contrary, it may, indeed, be argued that it is almost   
   unimginable that such an extensive and highly complex   
   literature such as the Veda and its ancilliary texts   
   dealing with subjects like phonetics, prosody and   
   astronomy, much of which, again ,is in prose form, was   
   produced and propagated without the knowledge of   
   writing." How correctly stated!   
      
   Vedvyasa simply organized the Ved(a) into 4 categories --   
   not necessarily putting them on paper for the first time.   
   The Ved(a) have been handed down, as R.N. Dandekar   
   observes, through oral tradition as well in a written   
   form since hoary antiquity.   
      
   End of forwarded post.   
      
   Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi   
   Om Shanti   
      
   http://bit.do/jaimaharaj   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)