Orality, Literacy and Memorization: Priestly Education in Contemporary South India

For the debate on orality, literacy and memorization, India provides some striking evidence. In his comparative analysis of ‘oral aspects of scripture’, Graham gives the Hindu tradition a special place, for the ‘ancient Vedic tradition represents the paradigmatic instance of scripture as spoken, recited word’ (Graham 1987:68). The Vedas, the oldest texts of Hinduism, have been transmitted orally for three thousand years or more, despite the very early implementation of writing, and it is the Vedas as recited from memory by Brahmans that are alone authoritative. A corollary of the spoken word's primacy is that in teaching the Vedas and other texts, although ‘written texts have been used’, ‘a text without a teacher to teach it directly and orally to a pupil is only so many useless leaves or pages’ (ibid.: 74).

[1]  H. Jason,et al.  The Epic of Pabuji: A Study, Transcription, and Translation. , 1992 .

[2]  V. Mitra.  Education in ancient India , 1964 .

[3]  Thomas B. Coburn.  Encountering the goddess : a translation of the Devī-māhātmya and a study of its interpretation , 1994 .

[4]  C. J. Fuller,et al.  Servants of the Goddess: The Priests of a South Indian Temple , 1985 .

[5]  D. Eickelman.  Knowledge and Power in Morocco: The Education of a Twentieth-Century Notable , 1985 .

[6]  Mohamed U. Zakariya.  The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society , 1996 .

[7]  William D. Taylor,et al.  Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word , 1984 .

[8]  C. Bledsoe,et al.  Arabic literacy and secrecy among the Mende of Sierra Leone. , 1986 .

[9]  I. V. Peterson.  Poems to Siva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints , 1989 .

[10]  C. Fuller.  `Only Śiva can Worship Śiva': Ritual Mistakes and their Correction in a South Indian Temple , 1993 .

[11]  J. Parry.  The Brahmanical tradition and the technology of the intellect , 2003 .

[12]  K. Subramaniam.  Brahmin priest of Tamil Nadu , 1974 .

[13]  J. Goody.  The logic of writing and the organization of society: Ruptures and continuities , 1988 .

[14]  C. Malamoud.  Cuire le monde : rite et pensée dans l'Inde ancienne , 1989 .

[15]  F. Staal.  Nambudiri, Veda recitation , 1961 .

[16]  B. Street.  Literacy in Theory and Practice , 1984 .

[17]  C. Fuller.  Priestly education and the Agamic ritual tradition in contemporary Tamilnadu , 1999 .

[18]  Jack Goody,et al.  The interface between the written and the oral , 1989 .

[19]  C. Fuller.  Religious texts, priestly education and ritual action in south Indian temple Hinduism , 1997 .

[20]  William A. Graham,et al.  Beyond the written word : oral aspects of scripture in the history of religion , 1989 .

[21]  J. Gonda.  Change and continuity in Indian religion , 1970 .