From my colleague Alan Rumsey:

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I am working on a paper in which I want to refer to a
practice in India I recall hearing about, whereby pupils learning to
the Vedas sit in pairs and recite one syllable at a time, alternating
back and forth between them. Do you know of such a practice? If so, do
you know of any published accounts of it that you could refer me to?

The reason I am intested is in connection with a paper I am writing on forms of dialogue and the way they figure in the performance of 'monologic' texts. The alternating-syllables method of performance involving two speakers is common in Native South America, as discussed by Greg Urban in his 1986 article

'Ceremonial Dialogues in South America' (https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~gurban/pdfs/Urban-Ceremonial_Dialogues_in_South_America.pdf)

Please respond to Prof Rumsey offline at:

Alan.Rumsey@anu.edu.au

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Thanks in advance

McComas

McComas Taylor
Head, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, CHL, CAP
The Australian National University
Tel. + 61 2 6125 3179
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/mccomasanu/
Address: Baldessin Building 4.24, ANU, ACT 0200

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