Ancient India and Indian Civilization by Stern P. Masson-Ousel P. Willman-Grabowska H. & H. de Willman-Grabowska & P. Stern & M. R. Dobie

Author:Stern, P., Masson-Ousel, P., Willman-Grabowska, H. & H. de Willman-Grabowska & P. Stern & M. R. Dobie [P. Masson-Oursel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781136200724
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

II Writing

When the Aryans entered India they already had a literature, but it was oral. For a long time the tradition was maintained of confiding literary works to the memory without writing them down. Even to-day, although the Indians have learned European science and methods of research, they prefer to learn orally from the teacher's lips. An educated man is called bahuśruta, "who has heard much." Their reading was hearing, and their writing was keeping in one's own memory or passing on to that of others. We are still surprised at the ease with which they learn by heart. Story-tellers go into the villages and recite whole poems for hours to audiences as unwearied as themselves. Rhapsodes used to visit the courts of princes and chant endless, involved tales of the deeds of Rama or the Pandavas. We do not hear of books, pustaka; the word is not found in the old texts. It seems to come from the Iranian post, "skin"1; sacred texts of the Avesta were written on calfskins prepared for the purpose. The more usual pāṭhaka, now "reader" or "teacher", originally meant "reciter".

The Indians maintained that their sacred works were better preserved by memory and ear than by manuscripts. It was even thought to be a profanation of the divine word—and the greater part of their ancient literature is the word of Brahma—to reveal it to anyone who could read. The Vedas were only written down very late, at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, under the influence of the Europeans and by the "treason" of certain Brahmans. The enormous literatures of the Brahmans and Buddhists were produced, preserved, and spread abroad without the aid of writing. For long periods in the monastic life of Buddhism, when a community lacked a text, it would borrow a learned monk from another community, just as we now borrow scarce editions from old libraries. The monk came and recited his "book", and the text was reprinted on the minds of his hearers.

This does not mean that there was no writing in existence. The earliest dated inscriptions are of the time of Asoka (third century B.C.). If the King could address his people in writing, the people must have been able to read, and therefore, in most cases, to write. Only the use of writing was not preferred to other methods of teaching.

The most ancient Indian script, Brahmi, so called because it was dictated by the god Brahma, is based on the Semitic alphabet. Merchants trading with Babylon, or even with the Phoenicians, doubtless introduced it very early, about 800 B.C., for their commercial use. From them it passed into the chancellories of kings, and the Semitic signs were added to and altered to render Aryan sounds.

Another alphabet, Kharoshthi, shows its Aramaic origin more clearly. Here the vowels are barely indicated, and the words are written from right to left. Kharoshthi, introduced into north-western India in the sixth century as a result of Persian rule,

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