Ever since the oral-only Vedas came to be written down into manuscripts, there has been a circular feedback between the oral and the written versions. This goes on till modern times in the Pathashalas in India. See this photograph from the Ghaisas Guruji Veda Pathashala in Pune:

I saw the same thing at the home of Shri Phadake, a Veda teacher in Pune. He told me that his students use printed books only until they have memorized the texts.

Madhav M. Deshpande

Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

On Thu, Oct 19, 2023 at 9:22 AM alakendu das via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Mr. Spier,

What we have learnt from Indological studies, Vedas were never written. We call it "Apaurasheya"... i. e. not written.
The Vedic Mantras came as revealations to the seers( we call them 'Drashta" i. e. one who sees) while in Meditation.
The hymns or mantras were then recited orally and passed on across generations of disciples. who memorised them.
Finally, sage Vyasa arranged a compilation and divided them among his 4 disciples namely, Poilo, Boishampayan, Jaimini and Sumanta.
Thus we got the 4 Vedas

In the 19th Century, Max Mueller edited the
Vedas.

Regards

Alakendu Das.

From: indology@list.indology.info
Sent: Thu, 19 Oct 2023 19:40:15
To: "Hock, Hans Henrich" <hhhock@illinois.edu>
Cc: McComas Taylor via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Whitney and doubling of "ch"

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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