Why were scriptures and classic texts written in verse form? [curiosity]

[Guest guest]

I had asked this same question on Sri KN Rao's jyotish group. It is a

smaller forum and I got one answer that perhaps jyotish classics and

scriptures were exclusively written in verse form to make it easier

to memorize. Given that much of the earlier transmission was oral,

this does seem plausible. The only way to preserve knowledge was for

generations to memorize everything. Of course then humans discovered

writing and memory became weaker from lack of use.

 

But it must have been really confusing for some of the codified text

(like Jaimini sutram written in the katapayadi format/style which has

to be 'descrambled' to get the true meaning. Lot of mental gymnastics

indeed!

 

But one wonders! If human beings had discovered writing when all

these knowledges were revealed, like jyotish, would we still have

needed the verse format or everything would have been written in

elaborate manner with explanations and avoiding all the guesswork and

extrapolation that needs to be done now to learn and apply astrology.

 

RR

[Guest guest]

It was written in verse form maily because the matter could be compacted

 

crystal pages <jyotish_vani (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

I had asked this same question on Sri KN Rao's jyotish group. It is a

smaller forum and I got one answer that perhaps jyotish classics and

scriptures were exclusively written in verse form to make it easier

to memorize. Given that much of the earlier transmission was oral,

this does seem plausible. The only way to preserve knowledge was for

generations to memorize everything. Of course then humans discovered

writing and memory became weaker from lack of use.

 

But it must have been really confusing for some of the codified text

(like Jaimini sutram written in the katapayadi format/style which has

to be 'descrambled' to get the true meaning. Lot of mental gymnastics

indeed!

 

But one wonders! If human beings had discovered writing when all

these knowledges were revealed, like jyotish, would we still have

needed the verse format or everything would have been written in

elaborate manner with explanations and avoiding all the guesswork and

extrapolation that needs to be done now to learn and apply astrology.

 

RR

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

True! Verse is a very powerful medium. However, there is the risk of

there being room for more than one interpretation and at times the

alankarik expression can influence the intended expression. Even when

poetic license is guarded against. A relatively modern creation --

the Quatrains of Nostradamus are ofcourse an extreme though unrelated

example of that.

 

RR

 

, Tatvamasi

<om_tatsat_om wrote:

>

> It was written in verse form maily because the matter could be

compacted

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> crystal pages <jyotish_vani wrote:

> I had asked this same question on Sri KN Rao's jyotish

group. It is a

> smaller forum and I got one answer that perhaps jyotish classics

and

> scriptures were exclusively written in verse form to make it easier

> to memorize. Given that much of the earlier transmission was oral,

> this does seem plausible. The only way to preserve knowledge was

for

> generations to memorize everything. Of course then humans

discovered

> writing and memory became weaker from lack of use.

>

> But it must have been really confusing for some of the codified

text

> (like Jaimini sutram written in the katapayadi format/style which

has

> to be 'descrambled' to get the true meaning. Lot of mental

gymnastics

> indeed!

>

> But one wonders! If human beings had discovered writing when all

> these knowledges were revealed, like jyotish, would we still have

> needed the verse format or everything would have been written in

> elaborate manner with explanations and avoiding all the guesswork

and

> extrapolation that needs to be done now to learn and apply

astrology.

>

> RR

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> How low will we go? Check out Messenger's low PC-to-Phone

call rates.

>

>