I’m following this discussion with great interest. It seems to me the script was meant to convey the sounds in Vedic recitation, so the question of whether someone is chanting “gacchati” because it is written that way or writing “gacchati” because it is chanted that way raises a lot of questions. I would be hard pressed to hear the difference between gacchati and Gauhati in the context of a chant, but that may be because I am not a trained vedicist nor a pandit.

Prof. Brian Collins

(He/Him/His)
Department Chair and Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy
Department of Classics and Religious Studies
234 Ellis Hall
Ohio University
Athens, Ohio

740-597-2103 (office)

On Oct 19, 2023, at 10:09 AM, Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Use caution with links and attachments.

Hans Heinrich Hock wrote:

Whatever the motivation may be for the spelling with a single <ch> in the Rig Veda (and let’s keep in mind that the “real” Rig Veda is oral),

1) Can someone point me to some article on when and why the Rg-veda was first written down . what script etc. Was it a British initiative or was the whole or parts written down before the colonial period? I've seen in a modern Taittiriya Vedashala the students practicing some of their mantras using written material. Did the medieval and later Vedashalas also use written materials to teach their students?

2) Is it possible that this "Rg-veda written spelling gachati etc." is just a reflection of what was written when the Rg-veda was first written down?

Thanks,

Harry Spier

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