Five Thousand Years Ago

Something superlative happened

INFORMATIVE

10/20/20248 min read

It is always that language is followed by grammar which is followed by script(s), and never the other way round. It is only natural to assume that sequence of development of a language is:

StageI: Phonetics to express one’s thoughts and communication with vocal sounds.

StageII: Oral Language vocal sounds refined to some precision

StageIII: Grammar laws to organize the language for precise communications.

StageIV: Script alphabets and writing scripts to make permanent the communications

StageV: Refined language Additions/modifications in language to express more precise thoughts and emotions.

StageVI: Refined script Improvements to the script for nearly the best representation of the phonetics of the language.

How we remembered five thousand years ago!

Something superlative happened.

Four Vedas, Rig-Veda, Yajurved, Samaved & Atharvaved were composed expressing thoughts of some highest level of mental state in a most sophisticated language with precise spellings, grammar and intonation-but without a script! Incredible indeed. Have you thought of composing a large amount of text without pen and paper?

Each veda has four parts: Samhita (collection of mantras or hymns), Brahman(performance of Vedic rituals & their astronomical connection), Aranyak(philosophy in Vedic rituals) and Upanishad(spirituality and abstract philosophy). These were composed by rishis/philosophers in deep meditation while staying whole life in woods. A better way to understand is to think hymns as vibrations syncing with a meditative mind.

Most of them are in verses consisting of mantras-a special form of shlokas ie poetic sentences-of multiple lines or just one or two lines of text in Sanskrit. The entire corpus is in prose form as well as in poetic form with balanced metrics in each sentence or stanza.

I. Timeframe of creation of Vedas

No one knows when they were composed, but accounts vary from 5,000BCE to 1,500BCE with most likely year around 2,500BCE during late Harappan period. This means around 4,500-3,500years ago from today.

These ancient literature were mostly composed by rishis and munis ie hermits who were product of the population that moved from drying Indus Valley Civilization regions towards greenery of fertile lands of Sarswati and Yamuna rivers. They started staying in hermitages away from population. The geographical area of the hermitages is supposed to be on the banks of Sarswati (now somewhat extinct), Sindhu and Yamuna rivers. They used to live in hermit style in woods away from populations.

II. Why Oral Traditions ?

The entire material was not written but composed orally and transmitted orally. Traditions of Vedic chant are considered the oldest unbroken oral tradition in existence amongst all civilizations. UNESCO has proclaimed the tradition of Vedic chant a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

By a rough count the total number of mantras in the above four scriptures exceeds tens of thousands. Now, the key issue faced by the composers was how to document them orally and develop oral tradition so that contents are accurately transmitted over generations.

Reasons for oral tradition

Some reasons for oral composing were ineffective development/underdevelopment/slow development of alphabets and writing scripts that accurately document the spellings and pronunciation as well as intonation of the original composition. Interestingly, the problem persists even today. Try pronouncing the words psychology, fortune, pedagogy as per their spellings!

III. Connection of Indus Valley script with Vedic Sanskrit and Dravidian scripts

Definitive connections between Indus Valley script and Vedic Sanskrit as well as Dravidian languages, as also with Brahmi and Tamil scripts have been found. More researches on decipherment of Indus Script are underway post excavations of Rakhigharhi, Lothal and Dholavira and use of advanced software algorithms.

However, for the purpose of our discussion here we shall slide down straight to the sixth stage of refined scripts. Notice the adjective nearly the best. From time eternity NO script of any language of the world has been able to document its corresponding language in fullest precision. Some represent in poor way while some achieve better. All European languages based on Roman script fail miserably! Languages based on Greek and Cyrillic scripts are some what better. Up on the ladder are Semitic scripts like Hebrew and Arabic.

And, what about Indic languages? Does any one need to say that they are on the top! While scripts based on Devnagari are widely used Tamil, Telugu and Malyalam are at the same level. All of them as lingua franca of their respective languages very precisely documenting the latter.

And, what about Sanskrit? Isn’t it on top of the top! The language which might have started from vibrations got refined successively with precise grammar with additions of tens of thousands of words in order to express intricate thoughts but without script. There are millions of shlokas in Sanskrit composed some 3,000 to 5,000 years ago. But, transmitted from one gen to next gen and then again next gen not through pen and paper, but orally.

Even the best script of a language cannot capture the intonation, inflections and declensions of the spoken matter of the same language. We know how in a multi syllable word the meaning of the word changess with stress from one syllable to another syllable changes.

Anything written on leaves or on paper made of leaves cannot last for more than 100-150 years even with best possible storage technique. Large write up work on stone tablets is not possible as is evidenced by Indus Valley stone tablets.

These are some reasons why our early composers of scriptures considered oral practice superior to writing work. This to the extent that there used to be a saying that ‘writing makes a language impure’.

IV. Documenting by oral means

Usually the word ‘documenting’ connotes the meaning of writing down thoughts, literary creations or agreements on pen and paper in such a way that another reader understands the matter in same way or nearly the same way as the original composer. This with an eye on conveying the matter/message to the future gen, and their future gen.

But, what if scripts are yet to be developed to document the creation with minimum precision? Or, for some reason writing work is dispensed with altogether. Should the thoughts die? Or, can we devise some way to ‘document’ oral? But, documenting oral way has challenges much beyond average human effort.

In layman’s term oral documentation essentially means remembering by heart. Has any one tried to remember, post childhood days, a poem or prose so as to reproduce on demand with accuracy? And, what about expecting the same thing to be reproduced by the next gen with accuracy, and then again from the next gen?? Its too much indeed.

Now, let us rotate the calendar 5,000 years back. How did our rishis/munis managed to maintain such large corpus of millions of lines absolutely orally? Mind boggling inded! But, they did it!

Let us move further.

At the core of work is of course remembering by repetitions, banking on the fact that a mind has infinite capacities. And, many minds have even more. They can work in parallel or in tandem. A pool of minds can have both. So, shakhas or branches were created to specialize on one or, just two, parts of the huge corpus of scriptures. These were put under gurukulas where gurus used to supervise the recitations and checking for accuracy. Students were dedicated to gurukulas on full time basis who used to memorize certain sections and subsections. Once perfected by a group and passed by the its guru, one of the students from the group used to become guru for the next batch.

The insistence on preserving pronunciation and accent as accurately as possible is related to the belief that the potency of the mantras lies in their sound when pronounced. The shakhas thus had the purpose of preserving knowledge of uttering divine sounds originally cognized by the rishis.

Portions of the Vedantic literature elucidate the use of sound as a spiritual tool. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad asserts that the entire cosmic creation began with sound: "By His utterance came the universe." The Vedanta sutras add that ultimate liberation comes from sound as well (anavrittih shabdat).

"The four Vedas (Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva) are not 'books' in the usual sense, though within the past hundred years each veda has appeared in several printed editions. They comprise rather tonally accented verses and hypnotic, abstruse melodies whose proper realizations demand oral instead of visual transmission. They are robbed of their essence when transferred to paper, for without the human element the innumerable nuances and fine intonations – inseparable and necessary components of all four compilations – are lost completely. The ultimate authority in Vedic matters is never the printed page but rather the few members – who are today keeping the centuries-old traditions alive." writes Wayne Howard in the preface of his book, Veda Recitation in Varanasi.

Looks good if worked on dedicated basis.

But, how to maintain accuracy of the text with accurate tones over several generations?

Persons who composed such refined high level scriptures and so much voluminous material must have thought about it. They must have forethought ways so as not to degenerate their hard work over generations.

That is how the Vedic chanting system was developed in order to transmit original text along with its precise intonations accurately from generations to generations-all orally.

But, how?

Let us look into the following styles of memorization developed by composers some 5,000 years ago, which is akin to check digit method employed in current day computers and communications software.

Eleven styles of recitation:

Proof reading was done comparing different recited versions.

Some smriti styles are given below as a primer:

· Samhita-patha:

continuous recitation of Sanskrit words in melodious ways but bound by the phonetic rules.

· Pada-patha:

Recitation marked by a conscious pause after every word, and after any special grammatical codes embedded inside the text.

Let us say,

W1,W2,W3,W4… are successive words in a text, poem or prose.

· Krama-patha:

a step-by-step recitation where euphonically-combined words are paired successively and sequentially and then recited;

· Jata Path:

Chanting order is W1W2,W2W1,W1W2, W2W3,W3W2,W2W3, W3W4,W4W3,W3W4….

· Dwaj Path:

Let us say the there are 20 words in the text, last one being W20

Under Dwaj Path the reciting sequence would be as follows:

W1W2, W19W20,W2W3,W17W18,W3W4,W15W16,W4W5…

· Ghana Path:
W1W2,W2W1,W1W2W3,W3W2W1,W1W2W3,

W2W3,W3W2,W2W3W4,W4W3W2,W2W3W4….

Now let us apply the above techniques on a sample

Twamay Mata ChaPita Twamay

Twamay Bandhu ChaSakha Twamay

Jata Path:

Twamay Mata, Mata Twamay, Twamay Mata, Mata Chapita, Chapita Mata,Mata Chapita,

Chapita Twamay, Twamay Chapita, Chapita Twamay,

Twamay Bandhu, Bandhu Twamay, Twamay Bandhu, Bandhu Chasakha, Chasakha Bandhu,Bandhu Chasakha,

Chasakha Twamay, Twamay Chasakha, Chasakha Twamay,

Dhwaj Path:

Twamay Mata, Chasakha Twamay, Mata ChaPita, Bandhu Chasakha,

Chapita Twamay, Twamay Bandhu.

Ghana Path:

Twamay Mata, Mata Twamay, Twamay Mata Chapita, Chapita Mata Twamay, Twamay Mata Chapita,

Mata Chapita, Chapita Mata, Chapita Mata Twamay, Twamay Chapita Mata,

Twamay Bandhu, Bandhu Twamay, Twamay Bandhu ChaSakha, Chasakha Bandhu Twamay,

Twamay Bandhu Chasakha, Bandhu Chasakha, Chasakha Bandhu, Bandhu Chasakha Twamay, Twamay Chasakha Bandhu.

One wonders changing the order of words in a sentence would change the meaning of the sentence. A big NO. Amongst others a brilliant feature of in Sanskrit language is that the order of words in a sentence is not important, written whichever way the overall meaning remains unaffected. Its amazing, isn’t it? This is unlike most languages of the world, whether European, Semitic or Indic. This is because every word in Sanskrit is appended with reasonable amount of info about its tense, gender, case, number etc. Accordingly, by one study Sanskrit has been found most suitable language for computerization.