SV: Mnemonics in Ancient India

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Shailendra Raj Mehta [SMTP:mehta at MGMT.PURDUE.EDU] skrev 22. mai 2000 21:21:
> Moreover, while several individuals might have phenomenal memories, and
> even normal memories might be cultivated to astonishing degreess, yet, I
> would like to conjecture that, faitful institutional transmittal requires
> the creation of formal "memory palaces" and the like. One simply cannot
> gurantee that individuals such as Rajan Srinivasan Mahadevan would arise
> generation after generation in any lineage.

I think this is an important and interesting point. We have to remember that
Vedic material (and for that matter other kinds of material) was transmitted
within families or lineages, and that we cannot expect all members of a family
to be equally gifted (experience tells to expect the opposite). It is therefore
naturally to assume that a lot would depend on technique, and that such
techniques would be accessible to the more mediocre intelligences as well as to
extremely gifted people. If memory can be trained, it cannot be trained equally
well by everybody.

Lars Martin Fosse



Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
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