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LITERACY AND RATIONALITY IN ANCIENT INDIA
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JOHANNES BRONKHORST
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from an oral to a literate stage.! Goody did his own field-work among the LoDagaa of Northen Ghana, where he recorded the first time in writing, later using a tape recorder--the recitation of their Bagre myth. Based on this experience, and on the analysis to which the resulting corpus was subjected, Goody arrived at certain ideas with regard to orality which he considers generally valid.
2. Ordinary memorisation versus Vedic memorisation
A number of Indologists have reacted to Goody's ideas and pointed out that his conclusions cannot be extended to India without major adjustments. Beside ordinary memorisation, India knows an altogether different kind of memorisation, viz. Vedic memorisation. This kind of memorisation appears to be unique in the world, and must, in India itself, be strictly distinguished from other forms of memorisation. Vedic memorisation, which a youngster acquires in his teens or even earlier, uses special techniques to make sure that no syllable of the text committed to memory be lost. Understanding the content of what is learnt by heart is not part of this training, and is sometimes claimed to be a hindrance rather than a help.
Memorising the Veda in this manner goes hand in hand with the refusal to write down these texts. This at any rate is what the Persian traveller al-Biruni maintained in the eleventh century in the following often cited passage: "The Brahmins recite the Veda without understanding its meaning, and in the same way they learn it by heart, the one receiving it from the other. Only few of them learn its explanation, and still less is the number of those who master the contents of the Veda and their interpretation to such a degree as to be able to hold a theological disputation. [...] They do not allow the Veda to be committed to writing, because it is recited according to certain modulations, and they therefore avoid the use of the pen, since it is liable to cause some error, and may occasion an addition or a defect in the written text. In consequence it has happened that they have several times forgotten the Veda and lost it (...) Not long before our time, Vasukra, a native of Kashmir, a famous Brahmin, has of his own account undertaken the task of explaining the Veda and committing it to writing. He has taken on himself a task from which everybody else would have recoiled, but he carried it out because he was afraid that the Veda might be forgotten and entirely vanish out of the memories of men, since he observed that the characters of men grew worse and worse, and that they did not care much for virtue, nor even for duty." Some Brahmanical sources would seem to state the same. Several centuries before al-Biruni the Chinese pilgrim Yijing wrote: "The Vedas have been handed down from mouth to mouth, not transcribed on paper or leaves." The means at our disposal confirm that Vedic memorisation has been, and still is, highly efficacious. A number of Vedic texts appear to have
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For Goody on rationality, see esp. Goody, 1996, chapters 1 and 2. Goody's ideas on the Vedas can be found in Goody, 1987, chapter 4 Set eg. Staal, 1961. Aithal, 1991:11; sec also the passage from l-Birunt cited below. Kane (HistDh II, 1 p. 348) claims "Even in the 20th century (...) there are hundreds of brahmanas who learn not only the whole of the Rgveda (...) by heart, but also commit to memory the pada text of the Rgveda, the Altareya Brahmana and Aranyaka and the six Vedāngas (which include the 4000 aphorisms of Panini and the extensive Nirukta of Ysska) without caring to understand a word of this enormous material." And Bühler claimed in the 19th century (1886.xlvii): A perfect Vaidik of the Asvalayana school knows the Rig Veda according to the Samhita, Pada, Krama, Jutland Ghana Pathas, the Aitareya Brahmana and the Aranyaka, the ritualistic Sutras of Ăśvalayana, Saunaka's Prötisakhya and the Siksa, Yaska's Nirukta, the grammar of Panini, the Vedic calendar or Jyotisa, the metrical treatise called the Chandas, Yajnavalkya's Dharmasastra, portions of the Mahabharata, and the philosophical Sotras of Kanada, Jaimini, and Badardyana. Similarly the Vaidiks of the Yajus, Säman, and Atharvan schools are able to recite, more or less perfectly, the whole of the works of their respective Sakhās as well as some other non-Vedic books. But it would be in vain to expect from such men an explanation of the literary treasures which they possess." Unfortunately Kane does not tell us how thoroughly the other texts (different from the Rgveda) are being memorised, nor does Bühler specify how many perfect Vaidikas there were in his time. My own very
limited dealings with one of the most respected Vedic reciters around Poona, Pandit Kinjawadekar Shastri (cf. Bronkhorst, 1982:79), taught me that his knowledge of the Rgveda and its pada and kramapatha was absolutely stunning, but that this same traditional scholar (who did indeed admit not to understand the contents of what he recited) had difficulties with a passage from the Aitareya Aranyaka (or was in the Upanisad?) which I asked him to recite. Al-Biruni, India, p. 58-59. Aitarya Aranyaka 5.3.3, which is often cited in this connection, does not appear to concern writing, see Falk, 1992. Kumärila Bhatta's Tantravärttika (6th or 7th century C.E.) on Mimamsa Sätra 1.3.7 (p. 123 L 20-21) contains the following statement: yathaivanyaya vijäräd wedál lekhyidipürakat / sildrenádhigarad vipi dharmainam na saratam [...] "Just as no knowledge of dharma is accepted (to arise) from the Veda if it is not properly mastered, if writing etc. have preceded it, or if it has been studied by a Sodra. See further Malamoud, 1987. Tr. Takakusu, 1896:182
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