[INDOLOGY] Frits Staal on the sameness of Vedic recitation

[Madhav Deshpande]

I am not quite sure of the "sameness" of the Vedic recitation across
different regions of India. To me they sound as different as the
pronunciation of English in different parts of India. Not just the Vedas,
but the pronunciation of Sanskrit itself differs from region to region,
affected by the mother-tongues of its users. The three volumes of "Vedic
Variants" also sufficiently point to a great deal of variation.

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 Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 3:46 PM David and Nancy Reigle via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear Michael,
>
> Thanks a lot. That seems to be the quote I was looking for. Very helpful!
>
> Best regards,
>
> David Reigle
> Colorado, U.S.A.
>
> On Sun, Feb 11, 2024 at 4:04 PM Allen, Michael S (msa2b) via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Dear David,
>>
>> I don't know about Frits Staal, but Michael Witzel at least has made the
>> comparison of Vedic recitation to an audio recording: "The Vedic texts
>> were orally composed and transmitted, without the use of script, in an
>> unbroken line of transmission from teacher to student that was formalized
>> early on. This ensured an impeccable textual transmission superior to the
>> classical texts of other cultures; it is, in fact, something like a *tape-recording
>> *of ca. 1500–500 BCE. Not just the actual words, but even the long-lost
>> musical (tonal) accent (as in old Greek or in Japanese) has been preserved
>> up to the present." Source: *"*Vedas and Upanishads," ch. 3 of *The
>> Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, * ed. Gavin Flood, 2003, pp. 68-9.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> Michael
>>
>> Michael S. Allen
>> Associate Professor and Interim Associate Chair
>> Department of Religious Studies
>> University of Virginia
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of
>> David and Nancy Reigle via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
>> *Sent:* Sunday, February 11, 2024 5:23 PM
>> *To:* Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
>> *Subject:* [INDOLOGY] Frits Staal on the sameness of Vedic recitation
>>
>> It is often said the pronunciation of the Vedas in Vedic recitation in
>> all parts of India, despite widely different local vernaculars, is the
>> same. This statement is attributed to Frits Staal. The idea is that he made
>> recordings of Vedic recitation in widely different parts of India and found
>> this to be true. As part of the same statement he apparently said that the
>> Vedas are the closest thing we have to a 3000-year-old audio recording.
>> Does anyone know where he made this statement?
>>
>> I have not found it in his monumental 1983 book, *Agni: The Vedic Ritual
>> of the Fire Altar*, nor in his more popular 2008 book, *Discovering the
>> Vedas*. I thought it might be in his 1961 book, *Nambudiri Veda
>> Recitation,* but I did not find it there, either. Incidentally, when I
>> could not at first find my copy of this book, I searched the web for
>> it, but did not find a digital copy. So when I later found my copy, I
>> scanned it, and I will ask our digital expert Lubomir Ondračka to upload
>> it to archive.org.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> David Reigle
>> Colorado, U.S.A.
>>
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>
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