English
At the end of the lecture, the tutor, after the last half-verse is finished, says, " Sir," ^ Here again I differ from the Commentator, who takes parasja as an adjective referring to etad, t. e. guroh. At the end of a half- verse, this address, bho I is to be dropped ; at the end of an Adhjaja it is optionaL ' According to some Sakhas, not the l^alas, certain words (prepositions) are, in this final recitation also, to be followed hj the particle iti ; abhi is even, in some cases, to be pronounced abhityabhi. Some other rules are given, all of which are optional. The text of the Veda, as repeated in the lecture-room, is neither Sanhita, Pada, nor Krama-text Some few S&khas only maintain that the Sanhita-text should be used pure et simple. I I 606 THE INTRODUCTION OF WEITING. the pupil replies, " Yes, Sir." He then repeats the proper verses and formulas, which have to be re- peated at the end of every reading, embraces his tutor, and is allowed to withdraw. These rules speak for themselves. They show that at the time when such rules were necessary, and when young Brahmans had to spend from twelve to forty- eight years of their life in doing nothing but learning and rehearsing the Veda ^, such a system must have had an object worthy of such efforts. Such an object existed, if, in the absence of writing, the sacred songs, which were believed to be the only means to salvation were to be preserved and guarded against loss and cor- ruption. If, at the time of the Pr&tis&khyas, writing had been known, some mention of a book as a sacred object would surely have occurred somewhere- We know from the Grihya-sAtras every event in the life of a Brahman, from his birth to his death. Not a word is ever said about his learning to write. The earliest allusion to this system of oral teaching occurs in a hymn of the Rig-veda which must be as- cribed to the Mantra period. In the primitive poetry of the Chhandas period there is no mention either of writing or teaching. But in a satirical hymn of the Vasishthas (vii. 103. 6), in which the frogs are com- pared with Brahmans, teaching their pupils, it is said : " One frog repeats the words of another, like a pupil who repeats the words of his teacher." (See p. 495.) No similar allusion to writing is to be found even in the latest hymns, the so-called Ehilas. If writ- > Caesar (de Bello GaUico, ▼!. 14), speaking of the Droids, sajs : " Magnum ibi numenun yersuum ediscere dicuntor, itaque nonnulli annos vicenos in disciplina permanent, neque fas esse existimant ea Uteris mandare." THE INTBODUCnON OF WRITING. 507 ing had been known during the Br&hmana period, is it likely that these works,* which are full of all kinds of mystic lucubrations on the origin of all things, should never with a single word have alluded to the art of writing, an art so wonderful that the Greeks would fain ascribe its discovery to one of the wisest gods of the wisest nation on earth ? If letters had been known during the period when men in India were still able to create gods, the god of letters would have found his place in the Vedic pantheon side by side with Sarasvati the goddess of speech, and PAshan, the god of agriculture. No such god i* to be found in India, or in any of the genuine mythologies of the Aryan world. But there are stronger arguments than these to prove that, before the time of P&nini, and before the first spreading of Buddhism in India, writing for literary purposes was absolutely unknown. If writing had been known to P&nini, some of his grammatical terms would surely point to the graphical appearance of words. I maintain that there is not a single word in P&nini's terminology which presup- poses the existence of writing. The general name for letters is varna. This does not mean colour in the sense of a painted letter, but the colouring or modulation of the voice.^ Akshara^ which is used for letter and syllable, means what is indestructible, radi- cal, or an element. We speak of stops as signs of in- terpunction; P&nini only speaks of virdmas^ stop- pages of the voice. The names of the letters are not derived from their shape, as in the Semitic names of Alpha, Beta, Gamma. With the exception of the r, ' Aristotle, Probl. X. 39. : ra he ypafifjiara iradfi ifrrl rfic (puvfj^. 506 THE INTRODUCTION OF WRITINO. the pupil replies, " Yes, Sir." He then repeats the proper verses and formulas, which have to be re- peated at the end of every reading, embraces his tutor, and is allowed to withdraw. These rules speak for themselves. They show that at the time when such rules were necessary, and when young Brahmans had to spend from twelve to forty- eight years of their life in doing nothing but learning and rehearsing the Veda ^, such a system must have had an object worthy of such efforts. Such an object existed, if, in the absence of writing, the sacred songs, which were believed to be the only means to salvation were to be preserved and guarded against loss and cor- ruption. If, at the time of the Pr&ti&Akhyas, writing had been known, some mention of a book as a sacred object would surely have occurred somewhere. We know from the Grihya-sAtras every event in the life of a Brahman, from his birth to his death. Not a word is ever said about his learning to write. The earliest allusion to this system of oral teaching occurs in a hymn of the Rig-veda which must be as- cribed to the Mantra period. In the primitive poetry of the Chhandas period there is no mention either of writing or teaching. But in a satirical hymn of the Vasishthas (vii. 103. 5), in which the frogs are com- pared with Brahmans, teaching their pupils, it is said : " One frog repeats the words of another, like a pupil who repeats the words of his teacher." (See p. 495.) No similar allusion to writing is to be found even in the latest hymns, the so-called Ehilas. If writ- ^ Caesar (de Bello GallicOy vi. 14), speaking of the Droids, sajs : " Magnum ibi numerum yersaum ediscere dicuntur, itaque nonnuUi annos yicenos in disciplina permanent, neque fas esse existimant ea Uteris mandare." THE INTRODUCTION OF WRITING. 509 meant when the pupils asked their tutor to make them read. Adhyeti and adhite, from adhi^ over, and , to go, mean " he goes over a thing, he conquers it, acquires it ; " and the very expression " to read a work from the mouth of the tutor," would be sufficient to show that the work existed, not as a book, but in men's memory. Another expression of the same kind is found in Manu (x. 1): "All the three castes may read the Veda, but the Brahman alone is allowed to proclaim, i. e, to teach it (prabrA- yat). To teach is expressed by the causative of the verb adhyeti^ adhydpayati^ he makes read, . e. he teaches.^ The ancient Hindus distinguish be- tween two kinds of reading, the ffrahanddhyayana^ the acquisitive reading, and the dhdranddhyayana, the conservative reading ; the former being the first acquisition of a work, the latter its rehearsing in order not to lose a volume that once belonged to one's mental library. This rehearsing, or svddhydya^ self-reading, was as sacred a duty as the first acquisi- tion. It was by means of this sv&dhy&ya alone that works could be said to live. We meet with similar expressions in other literatures of the ancient world. Ahura masd&, when he wishes his law to live among men, requires Jima to be not only the "rememberer" (meretft), but the bearer and preserver (bheretfi.), of the Zarathustrian revelation. And many centuries later, Mah&vira \ the founder of the Jaina religion, is called sdraSj vdraS^ and dhdraS of sacred knowledge, . e. smdraka^ a rememberer, vdrakaj a guardian who keeps it from profane eyes, and dhdraka, a holder ' Apastamba, Dharma-siitra, iii. 86. ' Kalpa-siitra, ed. Stevenson, p. 29. 510 THE INTRODUCTION OF WRITING. who does not forget the knowledge which he once acquired. Even so late a writer as Eumftrila, when he speaks of the material existence of the Veda, can only con- ceive of it as existing in the minds of men. *^ The Veda," he says, "is distinctly to be perceived by means of the senses. It exists, like a pot or any other object, in man. Perceiving it in another man, people learn it and remember it. Then others again perceiv- ing it, as it is remembered by these, learn it and re- member it, and thus hand it on to others. Therefore, the theolo^an concludes, the Veda is without a be- pnning.