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Re: The Art of Writing in Ancient India
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To: alt-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re: The Art of Writing in Ancient India
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From: banerjee@titan.trl.OZ.AU (Arindam Banerjee)
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Date: 21 Dec 1994 13:38:58 +1100
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Distribution: world
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From banerjee@titan.trl.OZ.AU Tue Dec 20 21: 29:37 1994
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Newsgroups: alt.hindu
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Organization: Telecom Research Laboratories, Melbourne, Australia.
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References: <3d558h$9k4@ucunix.san.uc.edu>
> Vedvyasa simply organized the Ved(a) into 4 categories -- not necessarily
> putting them on paper for the first time. The Ved(a) have been handed
> down, as R.N. Dandekar observes, through oral tradition as well in a
> written form since hoary antiquity.
Thank you for your article, but a few comments and questions.
How do we relate the pictorial writing on the seals found in the Indus
Valley Civilisation (3000 B.C.) to the phonetic language used earlier,
as you say? Would you say they co-existed? Or were the pictures
actually sounds? I really would like some light on this matter.
In what ways did the culture and civilisations of the Indus valley
follow the culture and civilisation of India as we know it in terms of
rendition of mythological figures in terms of art? The only example I
ever saw in the National Museum in Delhi was the crossing of Vaitarani,
the river of death, depicted on a vast earthenware pot made to bury the
dead. The last custom, is of course, non-Hindu.
Can we make a credible case that the Indus valley people had a different
culture (more Western!) than the pre-Indus valley people (who had what
is now the modern Hindu outlook)? I mean, things go in long circles in
India - the dominant culture today is something like what existed 1000
years ago.
Lastly some personal comments.
Even if the early Aryans, writers of our sacred books, were illiterate,
that is fine, even finer! For it shows what powerful mental capacities
they had, to store in their brains so much information! Only now do
computers have similar functions, but without a fraction of such
processing and understanding powers.
And certainly people who had the mind to do what they did should have
invented writing,at least of the pictorial kind. They probably did not
care to for the reason that when fine ideas become common, they
also become debased, and the people holding them become of no value.
That is, this was their way of patenting their ideas, to be handed down
from generation to generation. Even recently Brahmins did not want
their scriptures to be widely available.
I personally think that illiteracy has done very well for the human
race, in that it has induced trust among each other, so useful in
everyday business transactions, and day to day human relationships. An
illiterate society does not need lawyers! By illiteracy I do not
include innumeracy and certainly do not preclude the art of talking,
acting and painting. To the extent we are becoming dependent on
writing, we are becoming dependent upon lawyers, we are not forced to
keep and mull over ideas in our mind, as we are confident that we can
always look them up somewhere, nor are we under any pressure to consult
others about what we do not know, thereby precluding human
relationships... The nicest Indians I know, who are trusting,
God-fearing and helpful are those who are illiterate. Still they must
have literacy, in order to protect them from the literates.
Best regards.
Arindam Banerjee
Disclaimer: My employer is not responsible for my opinions.
