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" * Wolf, Prolegomena, Ixx — Ixxiii.: **Scripturam tentare et com- muui Usui aptare plane idem videtur fuisse atque prosam tentare et in ea excolenda se ponere." THE INTRODUCTION OF WRITING. 501 India. The whole of the Br&hmana literature, how- ever incredible it may seem, shows not a single ves- tige of the art of writing. Nay, more than this, even during the SAtra period all the evidence we can get would lead us to suppose that even then, though the art of writing began to be known, the whole lite- rature of India was preserved by oral tradition only. It is of little avail in researches of this kind to say that such a thing is impossible. We can form no opinion of the powers of memory in a state of society so different from ours as the Indian Parishads are from our universities. Feats of memory, such as we hear of now and then, show that our notions of the limits of that faculty are quite arbitrary. Our own memory has been systematically undermined for many generations. .To speak of nothing else, one sheet of the " Times" newspaper every morning is quite suffi- cient to distract and unsettle the healthiest memory. The remnants of our own debilitated memory cannot furnish us with the right measure of the primitive powers of that faculty. The Guaranies, who are represented by Missionaries as the lowest specimens of humanity, evinced such powers of memory when they were once taught to listen and to reason, that it became a custom to make the chief Indian of the town, or one of the magistrates, repeat the sermon just delivered from the pulpit before the people in the street, or in the court-yard of a house; and they almost all did it with the utmost fidelity, without missing a sentence.^ Even at the present day, when MSS. are neither scarce nor expensive, the young Brahmans who learn the songs of the Veda and the ^ Dobrizhoffer's Account of the Abipones, voL ii. p. 63. K K 3 502 THE INTRODUCTION OF WRITING. Br&hmanas, and the SAtras, invariably learn thera from oral tradition, and know them by heart. They spend year after year under tlje guidance of their teacher, learning a little, day after day, repeating what they have learnt as part of their daily devotion, until at last they have mastered their subject, and are able to become teachers in turn. The ambition to master more than one subject is hardly known in India. This system of education has been going on ever since the Br&hmana period, and as early as the Pr&ti^khyas we find the most minute rules on the mnemonic system to be followed by every teacher. The only diflFerence in modern times, after the invention of writing, is that a Brahman is not only commanded to pass his apprenticeship at the house of his Guru, and to learn from his mouth all that a Brahman is bound to know, but the fiercest imprecations are uttered against all who would presume to acquire their knowledge from written sources. In the Mah&bh&rata we read, " Those who sell the Vedas, and even those who write them, those also who defile them, they shall go to helL"^ Kum&rila says, "That knowledge of* the truth is worthless which has been acquired from the Veda, if the Veda has not been rightly comprehended, if it has been learnt from writing, or been received fromagAdra."2 3 Kumarila, TaDtra-Varttika, i. 3. p. 86. : THE INTRODUCTION OF WBITING. 503 How then was the Veda learnt ? It was learnt by every Brahman during twelve years of his student- ship or Brahmacharydi. This, according to Gautama, was^ the shortest period, sanctioned only for men who wanted to marry, and to become Grihasthas. Brahmans who did not wish to marry were allowed to spend forty-eight years as students. The Pr&- ti6fi,khya gives us a glimpse into the lecture-rooms of the Brahmanic colleges. " The Guru," it is said^, " who has himself formerly been a student, should make his pupils read. He himself takes his seat either to the east, or the north, or the north-east. If he has no more than one or two pupils, they sit at his right hand. If he has more, they place themselves accord- ing as there is room. They then embrace their master, and say, *Sir, read!' The master gravely says ' Om,' i. e. ' Yes.' He then begins to say a praSna (a question), which consists of three verses.^ In order that no word may escape the attention of his pupils, he pronounces all with the high accent ', 1 Frati^akhya da Big-veda, par A. Begnier, Journal Asiatique, 1856. Chapitre XV. 2 If the metre is pankti, the praSna may consist of two or three ▼erses; if the metre is longer than pankti, two verses only consti- tute a prasna ; if a hymn consists of one verse, that by itself forms a prasna. Samayas, t. e. passages which have occurred before (and are sometimes left out in the MSS.), are counted, if they consist of a complete verse. Two Dvipadas are counted as one verse, and, as the Commentator adds (v. 12.), the two half- verses of each Dvi- pada-line are to be joined in recitation, and only if there is one odd Dvipada-line remaining, a pause is to be made at the end of the first half-verse. If there are some verses remaining at the end of a hymn, they may be joined to the last prasna ; if there are more than two verses, this is optional. 3 The only words which, in the Sanhita-patha, would be likely to escape the pupil's attention are monosyllables consisting of K K 4 v^^^Sc THB INTRODUCTION OP "WBITING- ■^2<3. repeats certain words twice, or he says so ^ \X\ ) ^^ft^' these words." The chief difficulties in the pronunciation of the "V" e^a- ^^ ^^ changes of the final and initial letters. rj^yie pupils are instructed in these euphonic rules ia- a.epe^^^^'^^^y (the Siksh&), but whenever a difficult ^jgj^e of sandhi occurs, the Guru examines his audience aricl explains the difficulties. And here the method follo'W®*^ is this. After the Guru has pronounced a group of words, consisting of three or sometimes Cin long compounds) of more words, the first pupil repeats tbe first word, and when anything is to be explained, tbe teacher stops him, and says, " Sir."* After it has l,een explained by the pupil who is at the head of the class, the permission to continue is given with the e vowel only, and that a vowel not changed into a Bcmi-vowel, 7n virbicb form it would be more audible. This would restrict lue rule regarding repetition to the two words a and u. Thus for prh. >^*>f " P/ + . the Guru would bave to say pr& ^ or J^petition would not take place in Jl^ ed, because is changed InS> "• , ^' "-o^tta could n>ean V word being wholly Taatta, then wo^d be excluded, and the rule would refer to ^ '>-'^- . nd T.txl': '""* Testation when the accent .b d- ,egrded. and aU BylUblea are pronounced with a high tone. The Coo^xnentary construes the ,„! differently- ^ **' construe I These are chiefly the chan.^^ c ^^^'" .„^o Anusvara before r and the Aflbmana ; the common ^ * Asbmans; the sup- pression of o fi^'^l n ; its tran8itio*^°^^^ ""^ *^t^ansition into a sibi- lant ; the absence of sandhi whe *^*° ' ' '** tle *'''^^* °^ '' the hiatus. ® ? follows 5 a The text is fit^j^ ^ ^^ THE INTRODUCTION OF WRITING. 505 words, " Well, Sir." After the words pf the teacher have thus been repeated by one, the next pupil has to apply to him with the word, " Sir." ^ When there is no diflBculty, the rule seems to be that the Guru says two words at a time, which are then repeated by the pupil. If it is a compound, one word only is to be pronounced by the Guru, and to be repeated by the pupil. After a section of three verses has thus been gone through, all the pupils have to rehearse it again and again. When they have mastered it, they have to recite the whole without any break, with an even voice, observing all the rules of sandhi, marking slightly the division in the middle of compounds, and pronouncing every syllable with the high accent.^ It does not seem as if several pupils were allowed to recite together, for it is stated distinctly that the Guru first tells the verses to his- pupil on the right, and that every pupil, after his task is finished, turns to the right, and walks round the tutor. This must occupy a long time every day, considering that a lec- ture consists of sixty and more prasnas, or of about 180 verses. The pupils are not dismissed till the lecture is finished.