1. Use of Writing & Printing

The form of vedic recitation and the training associated with it clearly reflect that veda has always been primarily an oral phenomenon. Today's teachers at Shringeri's Brahmin school for vedic recitation, however, like those at similar schools all over India, consistently use printed books as props to support memorization [3]. Admittedly, Brahmins still regard oral instruction as essential to learning veda, as if hearing its syllables from the mouth of a teacher who has examined and accepted to instruct the student activates a potency that would otherwise remain latent. Yet the modern use of books as props for this recitation significantly changes the dynamics of study, allowing students more independence and providing a widely available public reference point against which to assess a given teacher’s knowledge of the veda.

a. Writing in the Pre-Modern Period

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[3] Audio-visual records of young Brahmins learning veda often show recitation without books (citation needed); Nambudiri Brahmins in particular, who seem to have preserved more ancient forms of Brahmin tradition, may very well still learn veda without books. But all the schools I visited in Karnataka, and one in Maharashtra used books, and the Brahmins I interviewed stated that this was common practice at all the schools they know of; one expressed enthusiastically that memorization should be possible without books, all the while admitting that everyone uses them..